Meet Me
by Celianna
Summary: With a knot tied in her stomach, BlackRose opened Kite's picture. As she stared at the real life Kite, her cheeks began to heat up and her face turned into a massive shade of red. Who knew he could make her heart beat so fast?
1. You're Pretty

**Meet Me**

**Summary: **With a knot tied in her stomach, BlackRose opened Kite's picture. As she stared at the real life Kite, her cheeks began to heat up and her face turned into a massive shade of red. Who knew he could make her heart beat so fast?

**A/N:** Okay, I planned this out to be a fluffy one-shot about BlackRose and Kite meeting each other, but it escalated into a chaptered story. So uhm, I guess that's a good thing? Anyways I want to apologize for changing around canon things; I have only played up till the end of the second game, and got the rest of my information from Wiki. I'm just going to pretend the offline party never happened and set this story about a week after everything returned back to normal. Oh, and I changed Yasuhiko's 'real' personality drastically.

I'll be showing both BlackRose's and Kite's POV in each chapter, it's a first for me, hopefully you won't get confused.

One last thing; 1.70 m is about 5'9"

**Chapter 1 – **_**You're Pretty  


* * *

**_

Akira's fingers gracefully glided over the keyboard as she clocked in a few keystrokes. Her pinky finger hit the Enter button and she was logged onto The World. She had gotten mail before from Kite, asking her to come meet him in Dun Loireag, the theta server. She didn't know what prompted him to send her a mail, asking to meet each other. It had only been a few days since The World has been back to normal. Since then, she hadn't really been on The World as much as before, but why would she anyway? It wasn't like she joined The World to play games, she joined to help her brother who was comatose. Then again, Akira couldn't deny the fact that she did enjoy playing it. That was largely due to the fact that she was always around Kite.

Her avatar logged on into the town that was high up in the sky. Her avatar BlackRose stood there lifeless, holding a big heavy sword behind her back. She panned her camera around to find Kite, but couldn't find him – maybe he hadn't logged on yet.

"Hey, there!"

Akira stared at her chatbox and smiled, then typed something back. "I thought you ditched me ;-)."

The orange avatar of Kite walked onto the screen and stopped right beside her. It was strange to be standing next to each other without having any world saving to do. These were peaceful times.

"Want to go run a dungeon?" he asked.

Akira shrugged her shoulders, forgetting he couldn't see her, and replied back. "Sure, lead the way."

As soon as she said that, they partied up and Kite whisked them away to some random dungeon they hadn't been before. It wasn't quite as thrilling when you know The World was fixed and you were only playing a game. Akira's brown eyes stared at Kita's avatar for a while and smiled to herself; but how could it possibly be boring if he was there?

"So, why did you call me out?" she asked after a while of running around on the field.

"No reason :-)."

Akira pouted at the screen. "Missed me already, huh?" she typed while smirking.

Kite didn't respond for a while, and his avatar stood still on one spot. Akira was beginning to think he might have gone away for a second, but then she saw his reply.

"I guess I did."

The girl wasn't sure how to respond to that; Kite was rarely affectionate, so it kind of came as a shock. She then walked her avatar up to Kite so that they were standing next to each other and began to type.

"Isn't it kind of weird? Now that everything is solved? I kind of feel like there's no point getting back on The World anymore …"

"Yeah, I know. But I logged on out of habit. I guess maybe I really did turn into a fat gamer."

Akira giggled softly at the reference. She remembered how she had once told him to go out and exercise, otherwise he'd get fat gaming all day long. She mused on it for a little while, trying to imagine Kite as a fat person, then realized she had never seen a picture of him. Not once, in the entire time they had spend dungeon crawling and world saving together, had she seen what he looked like in real life.

"I wouldn't know if you're fat or not, I've never seen your picture," she decided to type.

"Oh, hehe, I guess you haven't :-)."

She wanted to see him. At times, Akira imagined how Kite would have looked like in real life. She imagined him as a skinny, pale looking guy. Then she would imagine him as a muscular, very tall looking guy, with tanned skin. After a while, she stopped imagining what he looked like and would merely use his avatar as reference. However, it got really annoying to have to think about his avatar whenever Kite crossed her mind, and she really wanted to put a face with his words. So, she decided to ask.

"Do you … have a picture of yourself?"

As Akira typed those words, she realized that not only had she never seen his picture, she also did not know his real name.

"Uhm, I don't have any on my computer," was his response.

The girl leaned back in her chair, disappointed that he didn't have a picture.

"But I can scan one right now."

Her disappointment turned into gleeful giddiness once she read what he typed.

"Hold on for a few seconds, I'll try to find one right now. BRB :-)."

Akira smiled at his own smiley face; he certainly knew when to use those to make her smile as well. She twirled her hair around her finger as she patiently waited for Kite to return with a picture of himself. It was actually a bit nerve wrecking … what if he looked a lot different than what she imagined? Then again, she imagined him as his avatar, which would surely set her up for disappointment. No, he would probably look really normal, just your average looking guy. Who happened to save The World and went on countless of journeys with her. She sighed deeply and continued to stare at his avatar.

"Back!" appeared on the chatbox.

"About time!" she replied impatiently.

"Sorry, sorry :-) I only found one picture, and it's a year old, I hope you don't mind."

Oh no, she certainly didn't mind; she wanted to see him, it didn't matter if he was 4 years old in the picture, or 15, as he was right now. Akira's breath was stuck in her throat as she waited for her mail to come in. She would soon know what he looked like, and it gave her a nervous feeling in her stomach, something which she hadn't felt before. The little chime rang on her computer, indicating mail had arrived.

"Got it," she typed and then proceeded to open up her mailbox.

There it was, an e-mail from Kite, titled 'Picture of me'. Her mouse hovered over the mail and she hesitated to click it. She felt nervous, yet happy at the same time. Why was looking at a picture of Kite so damn important to her? It was only Kite! Akira took a deep breath and clicked on the mail to open it up. She read what he wrote before she clicked on the attachment.

_Hey!_

_So uhm, here's a picture of me. It's a year old, so that's what I looked like when we first met. I'm the guy on the right by the way, the short one. The other one is my friend, Yasuhiko._

_Please don't make fun of me ;-)_

Akira smiled as she read the last sentence; she wouldn't even dream of making fun of him. Well, maybe just a little. Her mouse was positioned on the attachment called _IMGSCAN__ and she knew that would be him. She was just a few seconds away of discovering his true identity. Akira steadied herself then finally clicked on the attachment. It was downloaded to her downloads folder and it immediately popped up.

There were two guys on the picture, standing outside smiling at the camera. There was a tall, dark haired one standing on the left, who held a soccer ball on the shorter one's head. Akira's eyes slowly crawled towards the shorter guy and took in what she saw at a very slow rate. She first saw his spiky light-brown hair; it was as long as his in-game avatar. Her eyes traveled downwards to his forehead. Small and free of acne. Then his eyebrows; as bushy as you would expect from a guy. Then came his eyes … big blue eyes were staring right back at her. Akira could feel her heart beat faster, but she wasn't paying attention to it as she continued to stare at the real life Kite. His nose was long and thin, and he had an adorable smile, showing off all his teeth, which fit perfectly with his personality. He was very skinny, almost scrawny compared to his friend, who was tall and more fit. He was wearing his school uniform, just a plain white shirt, tucked into his black pants. So this was Kite; this adorable normal looking kid.

Akira leaned back in her chair to stare some more at the picture, she had a huge smile on her face that had somehow managed to manifest itself there. She leaned her hand on her cheeks, and then realized it was feeling very hot. She touched her other cheek which was feeling rather hot as well. Akira took off her goggles and looked into her small mirror and saw her own red face staring back. She was blushing! Her face was as red as a tomato! Oh god, this was way too embarrassing. Akira couldn't believe she was blushing, just because she was looking at Kite's picture! The girl blushed even more at the way she worded that; she couldn't possibly be blushing because of that, right?

She placed her goggles back on, seeing his picture in view one more time, and her heart starting to beat faster again, pumping more blood to her face. Akira made herself as small as possible; she couldn't believe that by just looking at his picture she was blushing and her heart was beating faster. She was the tough BlackRose, and yet here she was; blushing like a little school girl in love. Akira screamed out in frustration and finally clicked away his picture. The World came back on view and she saw that Kite had written a bunch of things during her embarrassing picture staring.

"You know, it's rude to stare at people ;-)."

"Hey, are you still there?"

"You're making me nervous here … are you still looking at it, or have you gone AFK?"

"I'm sorry my picture scared you away :-(."

Akira stifled her laughter and quickly wrote a reply. "Sorry, my mom called me," was her silly excuse. In reality, she was blushing at his picture, but she would _never_ tell him that.

"Oh, okay. I thought you found me so ugly you ran away ;-)."

Akira sighed; ugly? No, the real Kite was simply adorable. Not that she would admit this to him.

"Well, I was kind of surprised! ;-)."

"Oh."

What was she typing? She didn't mean to offend his appearance or anything, or even make fun of it ... but it just kind of flew out of her fingers, like a bad habit. Akira didn't want Kite to think that she thought he was ugly or anything ... argh why did she have to word it like that.

"I thought you'd be taller! You're pretty short."

There, now it didn't seem like an insult.

"Haha. Yeah I was pretty short back then, but I grew a lot this year, I'm about 1.70 m right now."

"That's taller than me!"

"Haha, who's the shorty now? ;-). So, do you have a picture of yourself?"

Akira stared a bit at his words before she realized he was asking for a picture of her. Suddenly, she felt very, _very_ self-conscious. What would he think of her? Would he think she was ugly? Would he hate the way she looked like? What if she wasn't what he imagined and would be disappointed at her real self? Akira violently shook her head to clear her thoughts; she shouldn't be thinking such things. Kite would never think or say something like that; Kite was a nice and reliable friend. Yes, a nice and trustworthy friend who's opinion she valued very highly. Akira groaned out loud; she was totally insecure about her appearance and what Kite might think of her. He had it easy; he looked really cute and there was nothing wrong with him! She? Well, she was just an average looking girl. Average height, average brown hair, average brown eyes, average weight, leaning to the skinny side, and very wide hips.

She couldn't possibly compare to his adorableness.

"I'm sorry, I don't have any on my computer, and I don't have a scanner either."

Okay, that was a big fat lie. She had a _ton_ of pictures on her computer, which were mostly just herself and her friend, Risa. Yet, she couldn't stop herself from typing those words; it was like fear overtook her and wrote herself in a big hole. Well, now what?

"Oh, okay."

Great, he had gotten out of his way to scan a picture of himself and send it to her, while she told him a blatant lie to avoid showing a picture of herself. What was she so damn afraid of? She was BlackRose! Tough and not afraid of anything! She nodded with determination and began to type.

"I'll ask my friend to send a picture of me tomorrow, she has all of our pictures on her computer ;-)."

"Okay :-)."

Akira sighed and had almost slapped herself silly for being such a chicken. She shouldn't worry about her appearance, there was no reason to. Especially when poor Kite went out of his way to send a picture of him, it was only fair she returned the favour.

"Now that we're talking about this subject, what is your offline name?"

Akira hung her head sideways. She never told him? Well, apparently not. "Akira," she wrote. "What about yours?"

"Kaitou. Strange how we never managed to say our real names, huh?"

"We were too busy saving The World!" she replied and giggled a bit. So his name was Kaitou. How interesting. Wait, his name was _Kaitou_? Didn't that mean he basically wrote his own name in English, resulting in Kite?

"Wait, did you name your avatar Kite because that's how your name is spelled in English?"

"Haha, maybe."

"You're so silly."

"Thank you, Akira :-)."

She smiled when he said his name. It was the first time he hadn't called her BlackRose.

"Now, what are we dawdling here for? We haven't even entered the dungeon!"

She then ran away from him, in search for monsters. Kite would have to wait until tomorrow to see her real self.

When they were done dungeon crawling, Kite had to log off because his friend, Yasuhiko was planning to play soccer with him. Akira was left alone, and she figured she should log off as well. She took off her goggles and blankly stared at her screen. She moved her mouse to go to her mailbox and opened Kite's mail again. She opened his picture and stared at Kite … no wait … Kaitou for a few minutes. She didn't know why she was staring at him, but a part of her really wanted to look at him a little while longer. Maybe to confirm that he was indeed a real person, a person she could meet outside The World …

She clicked his picture away when she found out that her cheeks were heating up again.

* * *

Kaitou grinned at his friend Yasuhiko; he was in top-form and lively as ever. He sure did missed his friend all this time.

"Come on Kaitou, pass the ball!" he yelled at him.

The brown haired boy kicked the ball over to him, and then absentmindedly stared at his bedroom window, which was located high in an apartment right across the grassy field. He was wondering what BlackRose might be doing right now. No, that's not right, he knew her real name now, so he should call her Akira.

His cheeks turned slightly pink for a bit when he remembered that he had sent her a picture of himself. He was actually extremely nervous, for reasons he couldn't phantom why. He worked up the nerve to send her a picture of himself, and then slowly began to feel like he was about to explode the longer she took to reply. He didn't want her to dislike him, or be disappointed with the way he looked like. Kaitou knew he looked scrawny in the picture, even though he had grown quite a lot, but he was still nervous. He wanted her to like him, that is all. He swallowed when he realized that his picture was now in her possession and she could see it whenever she wanted to … and that made him really nervous as well!

However, soon he would know what she looked like as well. He couldn't wait to see her picture.

Suddenly, Kaitou was delivered a blow to the head with a soccer ball and he was promptly thrown to the ground.

"Sorry!" yelled Yasuhiko. "Geez Kaitou, what were you spacing out for?" said his friend as he came jogging towards Kaitou.

Kaitou rubbed his head, feeling a painful throb. He picked himself up from the ground and dusted off his pants. Yasuhiko came closer to him with two darkly arched eyebrows.

"Thinking about something?" he asked out of the blue as he picked up the soccer ball.

"Uhm, uhm," stuttered Kaitou. He couldn't really tell his friend he was thinking about a certain heavy blade wielder.

"Oh, you're thinking about The World," said Yasuhiko with a grin.

"Uh, sorta."

"Admit it, even after all these weird things that happened, The World is still a really cool game, am I right, or am I right?"

Kaitou shrugged; without BlackR—Akira it was pretty boring.

"Hey Kaitou, did you get a girlfriend while I was out?"

Kaitou's eyes almost bulged out. "N-no! Why would you think that?"

"Because you act like you're a puppy in love. You can't fool me, we've been friends for years after all. So tell me, what is she like?"

A blush started to spread across his cheeks as Kaitou fumbled around trying to find a way to answer his friend. Blac—Akira wasn't his girlfriend!

"Oh that's disgusting! You're blushing!" said Yasuhiko with a sneer. "Boys don't blush!"

"Well, then stop embarrassing me! I don't have a girlfriend!"

"Fine, fine. You couldn't possibly have a girlfriend before _me_, that would be unfair. I'm way cooler than you."

"I think with me saving your ass, everyone sees me as the hero and completely ignores you," retorted Kaitou with a smirk, his blush fading away.

All Yasuhiko could do was snort loudly and bounce the soccer ball off of Kaitou's head. Kaitou glared back at him, and then stared at his bedroom window yet again. Tomorrow couldn't come soon enough.

When Kaitou returned home, he instinctively went onto his computer and checked out his mailbox. It was a force of habit; during the Twilight incident he checked his mail every day for new clues. It was hard to get rid of that habit, even when he knew he wouldn't be receiving such mails anymore. He was pleasantly surprised when he saw a mail from BlackRose. A smile was plastered on his face as he clicked on her mail and opened it up.

_I figured I'd surprise you and send you a picture of me now instead of tomorrow. So yeah uhm, this is me!_

_P.S. don't make fun of me either ;-)_

Kaitou's eyes simply stared at his screen, his hand resting on his mouse, and his breathing going haywire. He did _not_ expect to see her this soon, he was building all his expectations up for tomorrow, but now she had suddenly sent the picture already? Well, this was certainly unexpected. A feeling of anticipation and nervousness started to build up in his stomach. Not as much when he sent his own picture though, that was far worse. He was excited to see her, so he clicked on the attachment that she sent along.

The picture opened up in a new window, showing a girl who was making a peace sign at the camera. She had a broad and devious smile on her small face. She had short brown hair, much like her avatar BlackRose, as well as brown eyes which – he could have sworn – sparkled at him. It was a bust-up only picture, and thus he couldn't see below the waist. His eyes wondered over to her chest and felt too ashamed to continue staring at that area and thus looked up at her face again.

"So … this is Akira."

Kaitou looked to his left to make sure his bedroom door was closed, then scrolled his mouse wheel to zoom in on her face. Akira's face was now in full screen on his monitor. This way he could really look into her eyes and study every little detail on her face. From her pudgy little nose, to her slightly roundish cheeks and her protruding forehead. He noticed she had long eyelashes that made her seem more feminine and seductive. Kaitou swallowed as he shook his head to prevent himself from thinking wrong things about Akira. He continued to stare at her face, kind of in a dream state. He never realized that Akira could have been a really beautiful girl. Then again, somehow he imagined her to be more 'skanky' because of the way her avatar was. Yet here she was, a pure beauty smiling at him mischievously. She really was pretty. Well, to him at least. Then again, he really shouldn't be having these kind of thoughts about his friend.

Kaitou clicked the picture away and started to type a reply.

_Hey, I just got your mail._

_I must say, you're very pretty. Don't show it to anyone else ;-)_

Kaitou hovered his fingers above his keyboard. Was this too informal? Was it too weird? He reread his mail again and hung his head down in shame; he sounded like a possessive stalker or something. Especially that last part – but he really didn't want anyone else to have a picture of Akira! It took them about a year to finally share this kind of information with each other, so he didn't want her sending pictures on a whim to other people as well …

The boy sighed as he tapped his finger on backspace a couple of times and rewrote his mail.

_Hey, I just got your mail._

_You look nice :-)_

There, that one seemed less possessive and stalkerish. It didn't make him look like he was preying on her looks for one. Kaitou clicked the button to send the mail and hung back in his chair. He looked over at his clock; it was 11 PM, very late. He still had school tomorrow. The boy turned his computer off and headed off to bed.

However, it was very hard for him to fall asleep when all he could do was imagine Akira in his head. He finally had a face to put in his head, and now, that was all he could do. He started to fantasize about seeing her in real life, to see her smile mischievous at him, then start yelling at him for being late or something. Kaitou smiled to himself as even in his mind Akira was already yelling at him. Then all of the sudden, his mind brought him back to that one mail she had sent about a week ago. The one saying how they finally made it through … the one that she signed off saying that she had fallen in love with him, only to say she was joking afterwards.

Kaitou felt a mixed amount of emotions when he read that sentence. He was stuck on the 'I think I might have fallen in love with you' part for a few minutes, before he continued reading and realized she was joking. Why would anyone joke about something like that? More importantly, why was he thinking about this now? This was just embarrassing stuff he shouldn't be thinking … Kaitou turned on his side to face the wall, determined to not think about her anymore.

He utterly failed as her face popped right back up in his mind.


	2. Nervous Voice

**Meet Me**

**A/N:** Even though the characters 'talk' in the game, I never noticed they had headsets and were also typing, so I figured they never talked to each other before.

**Chapter 2 – **_**Nervous Voice  


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**_

Akira hadn't felt good all day long. Throughout school, she was constantly pained by this weird sensation in the pit of her stomach. It was annoying her, and it was making her lose her concentration on her schoolwork. She felt like she was walking around on her toes all day long, and was frightened to hell when her friend sneaked up on her.

"Wow, what's up with you, Akira?" asked her friend Risa.

"Nothing! Absolutely nothing!" she spat out and continued sulking by herself.

"What are you so nervous for?" her friend pressed on.

"Nervous? I'm not nervous! What are you talking about? Ha-ha-ha."

Risa looked at her with an expressionless face and cocked her head to the side. "There's definitely something wrong with you."

"It's nothing! I'm just feeling a little bit –"

"Nervous?"

"Ye-no! I am not!"

"Why are you lying to me?"

Akira sighed and sat down on one of the benches. "I'm sorry Risa, I'm just … you wouldn't understand."

Risa sat down next to her. "Try me."

Akira shuffled on her spot, contemplating whether or not to tell her friend what the root of all her problems were. Risa wouldn't understand; she wouldn't understand that Akira was practically nervous all day long because she spontaneously decided to send Kaitou a picture of herself. Why oh why did she do that? What crossed her mind and convinced her that it was a good idea to send a picture of herself while he was gone? Now she was walking around all day long with that information in her head, that he knew what she looked like. She was so anxious to hear his response, yet entirely freaked out by it as well. What if he thought she was ugly? Or completely average? There were too many doubts!

"Uh, it's way too complicated."

Risa nodded her head with a smile. "Oooh, so it's about a guy." For some reason, Akira had this inkling that she knew which guy Risa was referring to.

"Well I guess it is …"

Risa smiled innocently as she scooted closer to her friend. "So, do you _liiiike _him?" she said in a sickly sweet voice.

It was a question, and the answer was something Akira had avoided like the plague. She couldn't possibly answer this seriously. She couldn't even admit it herself.

"I … don't know," she finally said while she hung her head down.

"Oh come on, it's not that hard to figure out if you like the guy or not. If you feel strange feelings in your stomach while you think about him, and can't stop picturing him in your head – then you definitely like him!"

Akira felt sick the way Risa basically described her whole day. Yes she couldn't stop thinking about Kaitou, his face stuck in her mind. Ever since that picture she couldn't stop picturing his smiling face, looking at her. Then there was this annoying sensation in her stomach and at times, she would randomly blush if she thought about him again. Okay, so maybe Kaitou was special to her, but she would never admit to liking him!

"Just tell Hagiya how you feel, it'll be fine."

Akira sharply turned her head towards Risa and glared daggers at her. "Eww! That's disgusting! I do **NOT** like Hagiya!" Akira's nervousness flew out the window and it was replaced by a vile, disgusting feeling.

Risa had always wanted to set her up with this guy called Hagiya. No matter how many times Akira had expressed her non-feelings for him, Risa, nor Hagiya would give up. Now her stupid friend had gotten it into her mind that she liked him back! She wasn't even thinking about him! It was Kaitou she was thinking about!

"_Riiight,_ just keep telling yourself that."

Akira felt like she wanted to puke. "You have it all wrong Risa, it's not Hagiya I was thinking about."

Risa rose her eyebrows. "Oh? Then who is it? Come on, spill it. If it's not Hagiya … then who?"

The bell rang and Akira was thankful she was saved by its presence. "Well would you look at that, class is starting again!" she quickly got up and went to class, to avoid having to answer her friend.

Risa gave her a dirty look as Akira disappeared around the corner.

Since that conversation, it was almost impossible to push Kaitou out of her thoughts. Her mind just couldn't stop picturing him, and her heart was beating way too fast for her tastes. She couldn't believe Risa thought she liked Hagiya. It's not like she hated Hagiya, he was a valuable alley during the Twilight Incident, but she really had no interest in him. He was still under the impression that she would someday turn around and fall in love with him, which made her feel disgusted. She would never like him in that way, but that boy never seemed to understand that.

Kaitou was much better than Hagiya. So maybe he was special to her, but that didn't mean she had to admit that she liked him. Sure she once joked that she was in love with him, but she was in a very emotional state when she wrote that mail, so anything that she wrote should have been taken with a grain of salt. Besides, even if this were all true, nothing good would ever come of it. They still had never met each other, and only since yesterday had she seen his real picture and known his real name. How could something like that ever turn out good?

No, she refused to admit that he was anything but 'special' to her.

That didn't stop her from being nervous as hell all day long though.

When she finally returned him from tennis classes, she flew towards her computer like she was on the brink of starvation and her computer offered her food. Akira's fingers rammed on the keyboard as she logged in to her mail. There was one reply from Kite …

Akira swallowed; he replied to her picture. Should she open it? What could he have said? Did he think she was ugly, pretty, average? The suspense was killing her, yet she was terrified of knowing his real reaction. Akira took a deep breath and calmed herself down. This was Kite, errr Kaitou. He was a nice guy, and would never say something bad about someone. However, that didn't necessarily mean he actually _thought_ that way. For all she knew, he could have said she looked beautiful, then in the back of his mind be laughing about her appearance.

"Argh!" she yelled out in frustration and the clicked on his mail to open it up, once and for all.

_Hey, I just got your mail._

_You look nice :-)_

Nice. She looked nice. Wait, was that a real compliment, or was that a compliment that you give to fat people who felt bad about themselves? Did he mean that? Or was he just joking with her? Oh god, even after his reply she couldn't stop fussing about it. Angrily, she wrote back her reply.

_Saying "You look nice" is what you say to fat people when you don't want to hurt their feelings._

_Thanks, jackass._

She pressed send and then nodded at her screen with a determined 'Hmpf!'.

Then as the minutes trickled by, she realized what a bad idea it was to send a mail to him like that. Surely Kaitou wouldn't think something like that, and was genuinely complimenting her. Then she had to go ahead and yell at him for it. Akira whimpered in her chair as it dawned on her what a big mistake she made. A chime suddenly went off, and Akira saw that she had a new reply from Kaitou.

Oh great, he was online as well and now she had to face him when she just sent that horrible mail. Hesitantly, she opened his mail and read it.

_I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I really do think you're pretty, and I'm not just complimenting you to make you feel better._

_Don't be mad at me :-(_

Akira's heart melt into a little puddle. She called him a jackass, and he called her pretty and asked for her forgiveness. What kind of woman was she? He was being absolutely nice, and she had to blow up and take it the wrong way. Nice going Akira. She started to write her reply.

_I'm not mad at you ;-)_

_Just word it better next time._

Okay, so she couldn't admit to him that she was wrong and sorry. It was hard for her to admit when she was wrong, but to actually write it out? That would just be embarrassing. Akira read his mail again and mused over the word 'pretty'. So she was pretty, huh? He was probably just lying again, or maybe not … either way it made her feel giddy and warm inside. Kaitou thought she was _prretttyyy_. Another chime alerted her yet again.

_Are you coming online, or do you have something else to do?_

Akira slowly picked up her goggles and logged onto The World. She was immediately greeted by a party invite from Kaitou. Such a stalker. Within seconds he appeared next to her.

"Hi," he said.

"Hello," she typed back. Akira stared at the orange clad avatar in front of her. Somewhere in Japan, there was an adorable boy sitting behind a computer, playing this character. Who had just told her he thought she was pretty. Akira swallowed and ignored her thoughts.

"Sooo … what do you want to do?" she asked a bit unsure.

"I don't know."

She could just imagine it now; him shrugging his shoulders without a care in the world. Maybe with a big smile on his face. Maybe with his brown hair in a mess. Akira shut her eyes and shook her head; thinking about what Kaitou was doing in real life right now was not a good idea.

"That's so typical of you, having no plans. Well then, I'll just have to pick something for us to do. Now let's see, which field shall we go to today …"

They both stood at the chaos gate while Akira was trying to find some pretty sounding keywords, in the hopes of getting a flower field dungeon. She selected three that sounded pretty and they were whisked away to a flower field. Akira cheered in herself; she wanted to have a flower field. She wasn't sure why, but she didn't really feel like fighting or anything, and just wanted to relax in a pretty field.

Then she noticed that Kaitou's avatar wasn't moving.

"Hey, somebody in there?" she typed jokingly. She got no reply. Akira huffed and waited for Kaitou to return from whatever he was doing.

"He could at least say he was AFK," mumbled Akira under her breath.

After a while, he finally replied. "I'm sorry, I got mail from Orca, he wants to party up with us. I invited him to join us, I hope that's okay."

Akira rolled her eyes; she didn't particularly care. It wasn't like she spend a lot of time with Orca ever since he came out of his coma. In fact, she only recalled meeting him once.

"Cool," she wrote her reply.

"Oh, and please call him Orca, and not by his real name. He doesn't like to be called by his real name in The World."

"Sure, but only if you don't mention my name in front of him either ;-)."

"I don't mind, then I am the only one to know of your true name :-)."

Akira rose her eyebrows at that sentence, wondering what he meant by that exactly, but was disturbed out of her thoughts when three golden rings appeared next to her. Out walked the blademaster called Orca.

"Greetings," he typed.

Akira was suddenly reminded of the picture Kaitou sent her, in which this Orca person was in it as well. She smiled; Orca had nothing on Kaitou.

"Hi there," she greeted back.

"Glad to see you online," said Kaitou.

"So Orca, how long have you been playing this game?" she asked, starting a conversation. He was wearing glasses in the picture, so she guessed he was quite the gamefreak.

"Well, excluding the year I was out, about 4 years. But now I'm back, and we'll get rid of any databugs that are still lying around."

How very noble-like of him. She could already see Kaitou laughing behind his monitor because of his weird friend.

"Then let's get started!" she typed, now actually feeling like fighting. Yeah, fighting databugs along side Kite, the good old days.

They went through the field together in a party, killing any monsters with ease that they came upon. Then they entered the dungeon, which they breezed through with no effort. Fighting wasn't that hard when you didn't find any databugs, and you were partied with very strong members. But nonetheless, she cracked a few jokes here and there, hoping Orca would lighten up and drop his 'I am a honorable gentleman' act. Kaitou was surprisingly quiet, even more so than normal. Akira tried one more attempt to get Orca to loosen up.

"So, did you guys have fun yesterday?"

"What do you mean?" asked Orca.

"Oh, I told her I was meeting up with you," responded Kaitou.

"You tell her this stuff … ?"

"Of course :-)."

Yeah! Why _wouldn't_ Kaitou tell her stuff like that? They were best friends, online anyway. So what she was only his best friend online, that didn't mean Kaitou couldn't tell her stuff that was happening in his real life. In fact, he barely ever did tell her something personal. However, after the Twilight Incident, he sure opened up to her more – maybe it was because he didn't have to worry about serious stuff anymore?

"I was an honorable man and won the soccer match."

"You did not." She could just hear Kaitou's sarcasm drip from his words. "You kicked a ball against my head and claimed victory."

"How absurd, I would never do such a thing."

"Don't listen to him BlackRose, he might act noble online, offline he can be quite … arrogant ;-)."

"I most certainly am not!"

Akira laughed a bit, finding their interactions amusing. She only wished she could have really been there with them for real, instead of being confined to the online space.

"I won the match fair and square, you were the one who was daydreaming about your girlfriend."

Akira's eyes bulged out and she almost chocked on her own saliva. "Girlfriend!" she typed real fast, furious that she did not know such information.

"…" was Kaitou's reply.

"You have a girlfriend?" asked Akira angrily. How come he had never told her? He never said anything like that at all … ever. Suddenly her anger turned into hurt, hurt that he actually had someone he liked …

"No, I don't, Orca was just teasing me."

For some reason, Akira really didn't buy that. "Liar," she typed. "How come you never told me you had a girlfriend? I'm your best friend! I ought to know!"

"But I really don't …"

"It's my mistake, BlackRose, I was merely teasing Kite," said Orca, reverting back to his nobleman act. "He could never have a girlfriend before _me_."

"So, you really don't have one?" she asked for confirmation.

"I really don't have one, don't worry, you're my only female best friend :-)."

Akira sighed in relief; he didn't have a girlfriend. That means he was still single and still available for her. Not that she wanted him to be available, but she definitely did not want anyone else to have him! No, she was way too possessive of Kaitou for that to happen. Not that she'd admit that.

"Well then, shall we continue our dungeon?" asked Orca.

After they finally cleared out the last floor they entered the Gott statue room to claim its treasure. It was Kaitou that opened up the treasure chest.

"So what did you get?" she asked impatiently.

"Angelic Cute Blade, it's for heavyblade users."

"Oh, let me see, let me see!"

Kaitou opened up a trade screen with her and he showed her the heavy blade weapon. It was a cute big sword that had wings attached to it. She had to have it.

"Aww it's so cute. Can I have it?"

Without waiting for a reply, she added. "It'll be a birthday present!"

"Is it your birthday?" asked Kaitou.

"Not yet, it's next week, but count it as an early birthday present!"

"I was going to give it to you anyway…" he then completed the trade and the Angelic Cute Blade was now in Akira's possession.

"Thanks!" she said and equipped it right away, her avatar now wielding a big, white sword with wings.

"Hey thanks for the party guys, but I have to go log off now," said Orca.

"Okay then, see you tomorrow :-)," said Kaitou.

"Wait, let me use a fairy orb to get us all out of here first," she said and used a fairy orb to warp them all back up to the field. Orca gated out and she was left alone with Kaitou. After a while of silence, his name popped up in the chatbox.

"So, when is your birthday?"

Akira smiled and replied. "Next week Saturday, the 18th."

"Are you going to have a birthday party?"

"I'm not sure, but I probably will with a few friends."

"Akirraaaa, stop playing The World for so long, I want to play too," whined her brother Kazu all of the sudden outside her bedroom. Akira took off her goggles and yelled back at the door.

"No! I won't allow you to log on anymore!"

"But Akiraaaaa…"

The girl rolled her eyes then placed the goggles back on her head and started to type.

"I'm sorry, but I have to go. My brother is begging me to let him back on the computer. Later." She then promptly gated out and went to face her brother.

She opened her bedroom door to face her little brother. "Kazu, stop whining to get back on the computer! You know you're banned from it, and I will most certainly not allow you to get back on."

"But you're on it too! It's so unfair!"

"That's because I know what I'm doing, and I hang around people who protect me."

"Then why can't you hang around me to protect me?" he kept urging on.

She slammed the door in his face. "I said no!" Akira sighed heavily as she heard her brother whimper outside her bedroom.

It was for his own safety; he had already been in a coma, and it had only been a few days since he woke up. She was not ready yet to let him go back on. It was different for her; she had Kaitou who would protect her, she had nothing to worry about … except of course if anything happened to Kaitou himself. However, the Twilight Incident was over now, save for a few data bugs … but that still didn't ease her feeling about her brother playing The World again.

Akira sat back down in her chair and stared at the screen, she noticed she had gotten another mail. She went to her inbox and saw it was from Kaitou. She opened it up.

_Since it's your birthday next week, I wanted to thank you for all the things you have done for me. So go ahead; ask me anything for your birthday and I'll give it to you._

_Uhm as long as it isn't anything physical, I am rather poor … ;-)_

A big smile had spread across her face that she hadn't notice. A birthday gift from Kaitou? What would she ask? What did she want? She didn't really know of anything she really wanted that he could give her. She placed her hand on her mouse and opened up the previous mail he had sent her, the one that had the picture in it. The picture appeared on her screen, showing young Kaitou and his friend. Akira leaned back in her chair as she smiled, while deep in thought.

* * *

Kaitou's fingers were resting on his keyboard, he had just finished writing a mail to Akira, asking her what she wanted for her birthday. He had also wanted to apologize for his friend's behavior and the girlfriend fiasco, but somehow left that part out. He didn't know why, but he definitely didn't want any misunderstandings between him and Akira. She was his online best friend, he couldn't mess that up. It's not like he actually had someone he liked, or even close to a girlfriend … he had never really thought about it until now. If anything, wouldn't Akira be the closest thing he had to a girlfriend?

"No, bad Kaitou, mustn't imagine things which she would hit you for," he mumbled to himself.

First things first; he needed a birthday present for Akira. After all these times that she had his back, it was only fair he would show his appreciation of her. He only hoped it wasn't something expensive, as he had almost no money. She probably wouldn't really want anything in-game … so what exactly could he give her? A birthday card? That seemed a bit too … pathetic. Birthdays cards were given to people you barely know, not to someone who once saved you from destruction. Kaitou sighed heavily; this is why he had asked what she wanted for her birthday, instead of musing over it.

However, he also wanted to give her a little surprise, something she didn't ask for. It wouldn't really be a birthday present if you already knew what you were going to get, which is why he wanted to give her something unexpected. Maybe he needed some advice from his friend Yasuhiko. Kaitou made a mental note to ask his best friend at school for some advice. The boy stood up from his computer, ready to sleep so he could start another day.

Kaitou woke up late, with his alarm clock beeping for 20 minutes until it finally woke him up. He quickly dressed himself – didn't even bother to check his mail – then ran out of his apartment to catch the bus to school. He was glad to see the bus had just arrived on the scene, and he quickly entered it. Good; he wasn't going to be late for school or anything.

"Good morning!" greeted Yasuhiko from his desk as Kaitou entered the classroom.

"It's my first day of school since I woke up, I'm kind of nervous," said Yasuhiko with a nervous chuckle.

Kaitou sat down at the desk behind his friend. "Don't be, nothing really changed since you were gone. Except that you're in a new class."

As the classroom started to fill up, Yasuhiko kept getting thumbs up from other classmates. They would also stop by to ask how he was doing, or if he needed any help. Class started, and Kaitou zoned out the boring voice of the teacher and stared outside.

He wondered what class Akira had right now. She was two years older, and thus was his senpai and in high school. Was she thinking right now what kind of birthday present she wanted? Did she already decide what she wanted? Maybe she did, he didn't really have the chance to check his mail this morning. He hoped it was something he could give to her, and not an impossible wish such as 'Give me 10 million yen.'. Something like a teddy bear he could certainly buy … but this was Akira, the tough-acting BlackRose – would she even like frivolous stuff like that? Maybe she was the type to like remote controlled cars or something. Kaitou thought about Akira holding a big controller in her hand to steer a little car on the street. He snickered softly then waved the idea from his head; surely she wasn't like that either.

Then what exactly would she like? He knew that she liked swimming and played tennis… That's it! He could buy her a racket or something! Then again, he had no clue what kind of racket he had to buy, and which one would suit her, maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all. Kaitou silently mused on the things that he could buy for Akira as the class continued.

When class was over, Yasuhiko turned around and stretched. "Yup, nothing changed! Boring as ever."

Kaitou snickered and took out his lunchbox to eat … then realized he had forgotten his lunch box because he was in a hurry this morning.

"Hey, Yasuhiko. What kind of present would a girl like?" he finally asked.

His friend looked up with surprised eyes, and his mouth half-open.

"Wait – are you_ sure_ you don't have a girlfriend?"

"Positive," he replied with a huff.

"Then why are you asking me what girls like?"

"It's for BlackRose, the girl you partied with yesterday. She said her birthday was coming soon and I want to buy her something nice."

"Well, give her a phone strap or something. I always see girls with those ridiculous things on their phones."

Phone straps, now that Kaitou thought about it, he did see a lot of phone straps on a girl's cellphone. There was just one problem though; did Akira have a cellphone? He would have to ask her once he got back home.

"Yeah, that might be a good idea," he mused.

When school ended, Yasuhiko insisted he stayed behind and look for some clubs to join after school. It was really late when Kaitou finally returned home. Once in his comfy bedroom, he logged onto his mail to see if Akira ever sent him a reply. There was, and he happily clicked it, expecting her to say what she wanted for her birthday.

_That's a tough one!_

_I would have to think about this for a while, so please give me another day or two before I come up with something._

Kaitou read the mail twice and sighed; she didn't know either. That's great! He composed himself and started to write a reply. How could he ask if she had a cellphone without sounding too suspicious? He didn't want her to find out he wanted to buy a phone strap for her … so how could he avoid that? Kaitou tapped his fingers a bunch of times on the keyboard before he started.

_That's okay, as long as you don't tell me at the last-minute then it'll be fine._

_I've been meaning to ask you, but can I have your cellphone number?_

The brunette nodded firmly at his mail and clicked on send.. This way, she wouldn't suspect him of fishing for answers. If she didn't have a cellphone, she would simply say so. If she did have a cellphone, she'd give him her number.

It took a few seconds before it dawned on Kaitou what he did. He just asked for Akira's phone number – and for whatever reason would he ask that unless he wanted to talk to her! He groaned out loud and smacked himself in the forehead; he only wanted to avoid her being suspicious of him! Now he made her think he wanted to talk to her on the phone! Well, that wouldn't be too bad, but didn't it just seem wrong? Like he wanted to hear her voice or something? That just seemed creepy, period.

Oh, the damage that had been done, he would never hear the end of it.

A chime rang and a new mail from BlackRose popped up. Kaitou gulped loudly and slowly hovered his mouse over the mail. He clicked it to open.

_Why?_

Why? That's all she said? Not even a 'I don't own a cellphone' or 'Sure, here it is!' reply? That didn't even answer his secret question if she had a cellphone or not. Now he had to actually explain why he wanted her phone number without making her suspicious, and without seeming creepy that he wanted to hear her voice. Kaitou hit himself on the forehead again. He really dug a deep hole for himself.

What should his reply be? What should he write that didn't sound creepy or suspicious, or both? Hesitating slightly, he began to type.

_This way I can keep in touch with you without having to use the computer :-)_

There, that sounded friendly and not creepy. He even added the little smiley face in there to make it seem light hearted. He hoped it work as he clicked on send. A few minutes later (which seemed like an eternity) he got a reply.

_Sure, just don't spread it around to creeps!_

_Here's my number: 74-555-908-74_

_What's yours?_

Kaitou gleefully smiled at the screen; she had a cellphone! He pulled his own cellphone from his pocket and entered her number in his phone. After all, she had given it to him so willingly, he couldn't ignore it, could he? He saved the number under the name Akira then placed the phone on his desk. He started to write his reply.

_Here's mine: 74-555-349-00_

_Don't spread it around to creeps either!_

The boy couldn't stop smiling as he knew what he was going to buy for Akira's birthday. A phone strap! It was so easy too; they were dead-cheap and very easy to find. It then dawned on him that he didn't have her address, and thus had no way of sending the phone strap to her.

"Crap," he muttered under his breath.

He couldn't possibly ask for her address right now, she would be really suspicious of him! Why else would he ask all this personal information from her all of the sudden? Great, now he had no way of sending her a present without looking like a stalker of some sorts.

A loud beeping ringtone disturbed him out of his hectic thoughts. His cellphone was ringing and vibrating, moving ever so slightly on his desk. His blue eyes looked at the display in slowmotion, seeing the name that was displayed on the caller ID. It was Akira. She was calling him, _right now_. Kaitou began to panic; why would she be calling him right now? That was too soon! He wasn't prepared! He had never talked to a girl on a phone before! Let alone Akira, the girl he's practically been with every day.

With trembling fingers he picked up his cellphone and stared at the display. This was too much, he was way too nervous to be talking to her right now. He had no idea why he was so nervous, but it freaked him out! Then his phone stopped vibrating and went completely silent. The display now said that he had 1 missed call. He let out a big breath of relief. Good thing she hung up, otherwise he would have to end up talking to her … with – with his _voice_. He'd probably stutter around his words and she'd laugh at him or something. It's better now that she hang up.

However, his relief was pushed to the side when his phone began ringing again The caller ID said Akira, yet again. She wasn't going to give up, was she? His thumb hovered over the green button, contemplating whether or not to pick up. She'd be pissed if he didn't, but he was a wreck right now. Kaitou couldn't believe what a wimp he was being and decided to pick up. He pressed the green button and slowly brought the cellphone to his ear.

Kaitou opened his mouth to talk, but only air was escaping. He had lost his voice, and was trembling too much to answer. He struggled hard to find the right words to say … scratch that – for _anything_ to say.

"Hello?" he heard a girl's voice on the other line.

A strange sensation crawled across his back and made him shiver at that one spoken word. Kaitou desperately tried to calm himself and breathed in. "H-hello?" he asked in a croaked voice. He coughed to steady his nervous voice before he said, "Akira?"

"Who else would it be, idiot," was the strong, sarcastic reply of Akira, the voice of BlackRose.

Kaitou fought for the words to come to his aid, but they had all but abandoned him this moment.

"S-sorry," he stuttered shyly. Great, he was stumbling around his words already. "Why are you calling me?" he said, without stuttering once. He felt kind of proud.

"Why wouldn't I? We exchanged numbers, it was only natural for one to call the other. Unless you don't feel like talking right now …"

Akira's voice slowly registered in Kaitou's mind. It wasn't a very girly sounding voice, it was more deep than girly sounding, and it fit her character just right.

"No, no – it's fine," he reassured her. It's not like he didn't want to … he was just really caught off guard and was feeling strange emotions that made his skin shiver. "I'm just … nervous, I guess." There, he admitted he was nervous.

Kaitou couldn't phantom why he would be nervous, as he had talked to Akira countless of times, but he had never heard her voice once. To hear her speak to him in real-time, to hear her immediate reaction, to have her hold her phone to her ear like he was holding his, was strangely terrifying to him.

"Nervous? Haha." Akira's laugh ringed in his ears and he couldn't help but smile at it. It was definitely something he could get used to.

"That's kinda cute."

It wasn't until now that the boy noticed that his cheeks were burning hot. Kaitou touched his cheek with his free hand and felt his glowing hot skin underneath his fingertips. He was blushing like he had never blushed before. Realizing this fact, and coupled with Akira's statement made him blush even_ more_, if that was even possible.

"P-please don't make fun of me," he said in a high-pitched voice. Kaitou couldn't believe he was blushing so badly right now, it was embarrassing!

"Aww, don't ruin all my fun. Besides, that was a compliment, not an insult."

Kaitou was paying more attention to getting his blush to go down than to listen to what Akira was saying to him.

" Geez, you always clam up at the weirdest times. Stop being so nervous – it's just me."

Kaitou smacked his cheek a few times; he had to focus and listen to what she was saying.

"Yeah, just you …" he whispered, hoping she wouldn't notice his voice was still stricken with fear.

"Ah! You wouldn't believe what happened to me on my way home!"

As Akira started to explain what happened during her day, Kaitou became more and more accustomed to her voice, and felt less nervous by the second. Her voice was bossy, loud, and her laugh was a lovely thing to listen to. Kaitou mainly held quiet as he listened to her story that she was explaining so happily. Every once in a while, he would make a comment, which earned him a few giggles from her. Those giggles were so easy to laugh along with, and it lifted his whole spirit. Soon, he felt completely normal around her and was now actively talking back to her, each sharing stories with the other. After almost an hour of talking, Akira shrieked loudly in the phone when she realized the time.

"Look at the time! It's almost 11 PM and we've been on the phone for an hour! Oh no, if my parents see this bill, they'll kill me."

Kaitou chuckled at her. "I'm sorry, this is mainly your fault though."

He could just imagine the annoyed look on her face as she said, "well thanks a lot buddy. I'm gonna hang up now."

"Alright."

"Good night … Kaitou."

It was the first time she said his name and he felt the hairs on his arm stand up, for no reason at all. "Good night, Akira."

The phone beeped once, and Akira's voice had finally left it. Kaitou, who had moved towards his bed during the conversation, laid down on his pillow and stared at the ceiling. His hand was clutched around his cellphone, which he held to his chest. Talking to Akira … really wasn't that bad. In fact, he wouldn't mind doing it again. He smiled to himself when he realized he could reach her anytime he wanted now. He decided to be spontaneous and send her a text message. His fingers pressed a few buttons that finally spelled out;

_Sweet dreams :-)_

He pressed the send button, his smile never leaving his face. The phone was still clutched to his chest when it beeped loudly, which startled him and he dropped his phone on the floor. Kaitou bent down to pick it back up and saw that he had 1 new text message. The smile grew bigger on his face as he opened it up.

_You too ~ _

Kaitou fell asleep while holding the cellphone close to his heart.


	3. Birthday Present

**Meet Me**

**A/N:** I have never once written so much dialogue without the use of any dialogue tags. Little note; 3000 yen is roughly about 35 dollars and 27 euros.

**Chapter 3 – **_**Birthday Present  


* * *

**_

Akira tried to suppress her giggle as much as possible. As the teacher looked over in her direction, Akira clutched the cellphone in her hands, making sure that he would not be able to see it. Sweat started to trickle down her forehead when she felt her cellphone vibrate in her hands. She hoped to god that the teacher would not hear it, so to cover it up, she coughed a bit, pretending to have inhaled dust. The teacher turned around to continue his lesson again. Akira sighed in relief.

Her brown eyes looked down at her lap, where her cellphone was. She had 1 new message from Kaitou. A smile played on her lips as she opened the message and read it.

_I swear I just saw Yasuhiko pick his nose and flick it towards a girl sitting in front of him._

Akira put a hand in front of her mouth and tried to steady her breathing. Her stomach was hurting from holding in her laughter; it hurt so much! The teacher turned around again as he noticed the slight irregular breathing coming from Akira. Akira sat up straight and stared him right back in the eye. He rose an eyebrow then turned around again.

_Stop making me laugh! The teacher keeps looking over here and he might catch me!_

Akira pressed send and looked around the classroom. Risa, who was sitting at the back, two desks further than her, was looking at her with a confused look on her face. Akira simply shrugged and gave her a smile. A minute later and her phone vibrated again. Gleefully, she opened the message to read what he had written.

_Where's the fun in that? Keep laughing :-)_

Akira cracked a smile at the text message, who knew Kaitou could act like such a clown? He had always been serious in the game, with a few witty and sarcastic remarks every now and then. Rarely did he try to act funny, but right now, he was completely different. It made her laugh, for sure, but then decided enough was enough; she had to stop texting him in the middle of class. It started this morning, where she couldn't stop thinking about their phone call the day before, and sent him a text message when she was on her way to school to wish him a good morning. Things just escalated from there and she ended up texting him throughout her first period. It was … strangely addicting. Akira started to press a few buttons on her phone to write her last text message.

_Let's just pay attention to class for once. I'll see you later today :-)_

That should do it. If she would continue texting Kaitou she'd be out of money, and would be behind in class. Akira tried to pay attention to her class seriously this time. Recess couldn't come soon enough. The school bell rang and Akira happily got out of her seat.

Risa met her on the hallway with a frown on her face. She bit her tongue when she saw Akira's smiling face.

"What? How rude to stare at me like that," bit Akira.

"_Who_ have you been texting with all this time?" demanded her friend.

Akira rolled her brown eyes towards the ceiling and started to walk away. "No one!"

Risa jogged after her. "Don't say that! Who were you so obviously flirting with!"

"I wasn't flirting!"

"Giggling and smiling while secretly texting during class? How can that_ not_ be flirting?"

Akira said nothing and continued to walk outside the school building. Risa stopped in her tracks and her eyes went wide.

"Don't tell me … you were texting with … Hagiya?"

Akira turned around and glared at the girl. "Don't ruin my good mood by mentioning his name in my presence."

As if someone out there wanted to brutally torture her, Hagiya popped up on the scene. He flashed his perfect white teeth to Akira while running his hand through his blond hair. All of Akira's giddiness seeped right out of her soul; even if Kaitou would sent her a text message right now with a funny joke, she'd _still_ be in a foul mood. Just seeing that boy made her want to weep and crawl inside of a hole. That guy just didn't know when to stop his advances on her. It wasn't going to work; not now, not ever.

"Did someone say my name?" he asked, entering the conversation.

_Please leave, right now._

"Good morning Hagiya, me and Akira were just talking about you."

"I wasn't talking about him."

"Hagiya, do you have Akira's cellphone number?"

The boy's face started to turn crimson. "Uhm … no, I don't. Why?" he turned to face Akira. "Do you want to give it to me?"

Akira's lips turned into a scowl and she let out a low growl at him. He was never going to get her phone number, not in a million years.

"Oh, then I guess she really was texting to some other guy," said Risa thoughtfully.

Hagiya's smile disappeared from his face. "What guy?"

She really did not want to be here, hearing this conversation.

"Yeah Akira, what guy?"

"Can't you all just leave me alone? Ugh, you guys are irritating!" Akira threw her hands up in the air and stomped away from them.

She didn't care she left her friend alone and walked out on them; she was not interested in Hagiya. No matter how many times she'd tell Risa, it would ever enter through her thick skull. Then she'd have to be all nosy about who she was texting with. It was just Kaitou, but she wouldn't tell her friend that. This was something she only wanted to share with the Twilight Hero. Akira sat down on a bench underneath a tree and sighed heavily. Her mood was totally ruined, even after she thought this was going to be a great day. Suddenly, her cellphone in her pocket started to vibrate. She took it out and read the display.

_1 new message from Kaitou_

Alright, so maybe getting a text message from Kaitou _did_ return some of her good mood a bit. Akira opened up the message and read it.

_I'm on my break right now. You?_

Without even thinking, her thumb was pressing the green button and her cellphone started to dial his number. Her phone rang a few times before it finally stopped. On the other line, she could hear shouts of other random people.

"H-hi," said the shy voice of Kaitou.

Her mood had now done an almost 180 degree turn as soon as she heard his voice enter her ears. He was just too cute on the phone; his voice was so squeaky at times because he was nervous talking to her. It was plain adorable.

"Hey, it's me. Sorry, I just needed to talk to someone sane right now."

Even if it sounded like she was confident on the phone, Akira was probably just as nervous as he was. However, in her case, whenever she got nervous about something, she'd put up a tough front and tried to live it out. Thus she sounded confident over the phone, unlike Kaitou who sounded so adorable shy. Not that she would point this out to him.

"Sane?" he repeated.

"I'm surrounded by idiots, so it's nice to be talking to you."

After a loud shriek from his side, probably one of his classmates, he replied, "tell me about it. I feel like I'm in a zoo over here."

Kaitou's voice was suddenly cut off when another person grabbed his phone. "Is this your girlfriend?" she heard the person say.

"Yasu, give me back my phone, I'm talking to someone," she heard the distant voice of Kaitou.

So he had an annoying friend as well, always bothering him. At least she wasn't the only one that was bothered by her friends. Some more loud noises were heard from his side until she could finally hear Kaitou's voice, crystal clear.

"Sorry about that," he said a bit out of breath. "Yasuhiko was being difficult."

Akira chuckled. "I know how that feels like."

"Did something happen?"

"Oh, nothing you should worry about. My friend just likes to tease me every once in a while."

"I see."

After a while of awkward silence, Kaitou spoke up again. "Did you figure out what you want for your birthday?"

"Uhm, not quite! It's kind of hard to think of something when you said you were poor before."

A laugh emerged from the other side. Yesterday he had laughed a bit as well, and just like today, it made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

"I'm sorry I can't satisfy you."

For some reason, that sounded horribly wrong. "I'm sure you'll be able to satisfy me, as long as you listen to what I say." Akira had to force down a smile; she was messing with him and he knew it.

"Your wish is my command," he said, playing along.

"Then bark like a dog."

"… I'm not gonna do that!"

Akira faked a whimper. "B-but you said my wish is your command!"

After a few silent seconds, a small sound emerged from Kaitou. "Woof."

The girl burst out into laughing; never before had she ever heard such a pathetic imitation of a dog. It was all the more funny when she tried to imagine the look on his face as he did it. Akira took in a few deep breaths to calm herself down, and had to wipe away a tear that managed to escape from her eye.

"You're cruel, I hate you now," said Kaitou with a hint of a smile in his voice.

Akira finished wiping away the tear. "And I love you too."

Her eyes widened when she realized what she just said. "That was a joke. Ha-ha," she managed to say very quickly. "Uhm, I need to go now, break's over. See yah!" She hung up on Kaitou and sighed out in frustration.

That did _not_ came out the way she wanted it to. What a disastrous thing to say to your best friend.

* * *

He blinked his blue eyes for a few seconds, staring at the cellphone that was in his hand. Did he just hear Akira say that she loved him? Kaitou smiled nervously at the display of his cellphone as he softly shook his head; no she was just joking with him. She even said so! He ran his hand through his brown hair and sighed; he was thinking too much about Akira. Maybe it was time he distracted himself for the rest of the day.

"Are you finally done talking?" asked Yasuhiko in an annoyed voice as he appeared behind Kaitou.

The brunette nodded to his friend. "Hey Yasu, do you know a place where you can buy cellphone straps?"

"Well I don't know personally, but I'm sure that girl over there does," he said and pointed to a girl ahead of them.

She was standing in a group of her girl friends, all chatting about something they found interesting. She was holding a cellphone with a huge feathered phone strap attached to it. Complete with sparkly diamonds as well.

"Oooii!" yelled Yasuhiko to the group of girls. "Do any of you know where you can buy cellphone straps?"

The girl with the feathered strap turned around with a smile. "You can buy some at a place called StrapWorld, it's on 67th Mainstreet!"

"Thanks!" he yelled back, then turned to Kaitou. "There you go, now you know where to get one."

Kaitou fiddled on his spot. "Will you come with me?"

"Why? Too much of a wimp to go alone?"

"It's just that … these places are usually for girls, and there aren't any guys …"

Yasuhiko merely grinned. "Sure, I'll come along, but only if you admit you're buying it for your girlfriend."

"Fine – let's pretend she's my girlfriend then. Will you come _now_?"

"Oh, I'm going to have fun with this."

Kaitou was on edge all day long, thinking half about Akira, and half about what Yasuhiko meant before. Was he going to endlessly tease him or something? Why was he teasing anyway? Akira was a good friend of him, his partner, his best online bud – how could he not want to buy a gift for her? It's not like he wanted her to be his girlfriend, or anything of that sort, yet Yasuhiko seemed to love bringing that up.

Or maybe he was lying to himself.

Kaitou flipped open his phone and looked at his display picture. It was none other than the picture that Akira had sent to him; it was posing as his background image. Sometime, somehow, he had managed to copy the picture onto his phone, and made it his background image. Yes, that really was Akira showing him a peace sign. Yes, he really did do this in the middle of the night. Why – he had no idea. He just wanted to see her, at any time. Kaitou flipped his phone closed and went back to paying attention to class.

When school was over, Yasuhiko did not complain and willingly went along with Kaitou to go to the StrapWorld thing. They had to walk, seeing as none of them used a bike. The black haired boy was awfully silent, when only hours before he couldn't stop pestering Kaitou about his supposed girlfriend.

"What kind of strap thingy are you looking for?" he suddenly asked.

"Uhm, well I'm hoping to find one with a tennis racket on it …"

It might seemed stupid to anyone else who didn't know Akira; but since he didn't want to mess up by buying a real racket that she wouldn't use, he'd be safer buying her a smaller version she could hook up on her phone. A little tennis racket phone strap, that's exactly what he was looking for.

"A tennis racket? Why not one that's full of little hearts or something?"

"I don't think she'd like that, she's not a very girly girl. Or at least, I don't think so."

"Even if she wasn't, it would be better than a _tennis racket_. I mean, who'd want that on their phone? If you buy her one with hearts, then every time she looks at it it'll remind her of how much she likes you!"

Kaitou's cheeks turned a little red at the thought of Akira thinking about him and liking him. He turned his head away from Yasuhiko so he wouldn't notice. Last time he was blushing around him, he berated him for it. He mustn't succumb to his embarrassing thoughts! Kaitou took a few deep breaths to calm himself down and simply tried to will away the red tint on his cheeks.

His friend rose his eyebrows at the silent reply. "Don't tell me … she never told you she likes you."

Kaitou said nothing, but kept on walking.

"Not only that, _you _didn't tell her that you like her either!" Yasuhiko burst out into laughing, holding his stomach as if it were about to explode.

"That's hilarious!"

The brunette shot him a mean look. "Whoever said anything about liking someone? You just kept on assuming things."

"Yeah, but, it's pretty obvious you like her. But you haven't even told her? You're such a wimp, Kai."

"There's nothing to tell!"

Yasuhiko merely smirked at his friend as he stopped walking. "We're here," he said and turned to his right.

It was a small store, and if it wasn't for those really bright looking colours on the door, they would have probably missed it. They entered the store, and were immediately surrounded by tall stacks of phone straps. They were everywhere; on the counters, on the walls, hanging from the ceiling, and even some on the floor! Kaitou made sure to not step on anything as they navigated the store, avoiding obstacles such as a high rack of phone straps.

Yasuhiko pulled Kaitou's shirt so that he would stop. "Look at this," he took a strap from the display, "it's full of little hearts!" He dangled it in front of Kaitou's face, which caused the metal hearts to bump into each other and create clanking noises.

"I'm looking for a tennis racket, not a heart strap," he said seriously.

"A tennis racket?" they heard a shrill voice say. "I can help you with that!"

Suddenly a woman appeared in front of them, clad in what seemed like a robe that was pinned with countless of strap phones, which made it look extremely weird.

"Come, come!" she beckoned them over to the register. "I have a fine selection of racket straps over here!"

Kaitou carefully made his way over the register, and saw the woman lay down a bunch of phone straps that had a tennis racket on them. He was afraid they might not have a tennis racket; but she was literally displaying more than 20 at the register. At least his fear of not finding one was now void.

His blue eyes scanned the straps in front of them. Some of them were made out of golden metal, others had diamonds embedded into the metal. Others had tennis shoes dangle from it, or had other weird feathery and sparkly stuff. One in particular caught his eye; it was a simple metallic blue tennis racket, almost the size of his thumb. The inside of the racket looked kind of like a speaker. The woman noticed that he was looking at it, and picked it up.

"Good eyes, this one is really special! You can make it record a message and it can be played back. See," she pointed at a small little button on the back, "just press and hold it and it will record your message. Press it once to replay what message was recorded previously."

Kaitou liked the idea of it holding a message. Maybe something like 'Happy Birthday!' would be a good gift. He took the tennis racket in his hand and smiled at it.

"How much?" he asked.

The woman snatched it from his hands and scanned it at the register. "750 Yen."

Kaitou winced at the price; it was a bit much, but he didn't have any other choice. "Then I'll take it."

"Are you sure, Kai? You could get her something more … cute, than that."

The woman took Kaitou's money from his hands, packet the phone strap and wished them a good day. They both exited the shop and Kaitou took out the phone strap to examine it closely.

"I hope she likes it," he said, more so to himself than to Yasuhiko.

"I hope for your sake she does as well."

Both of them parted ways as they went to their respective homes. Kaitou mused on what kind of message he should speak into the phone strap. He wanted it to be something she would remember, and after a while, he realized 'Happy Birthday!' just sounded lame. It had to be more special than that! Something that she would like to have with her at all times. Maybe a 'Thank you' for all the things she had done for him. Or a 'You're awesome' because she really was. Kaitou was lost in his thoughts as he entered his house like a zombie. He quickly went to his bedroom and as usual, got on the computer and logged onto his account.

He toyed around with the tennis racket while the page loaded, making it record various things he thought of, but replacing them again after only a few seconds. He eventually stopped recording after he said 'I hope you like this' and checked out his inbox. There was currently one unread message from BlackRose. Reading her name made him remember what she had said earlier today. 'I love you too' is what she said. His cheeks turned slightly pink and he tried to focus on her mail. It was titled 'My birthday present …' he guessed that she had finally figured out what she wanted. He clicked on her mail and it opened in a new window.

_Hi Kaitou_

_I've been thinking really hard what I want for my birthday. Unfortunately, you were pretty good at distracting me this morning with your text messages. However, after our phone call, it made me realize something. I realized I really liked hearing your voice._

Kaitou's cheeks turned from pink to red as he read that last sentence. His eyes continued to read on.

_I know it sounds weird … but I do. Then I started to think how great it would be to hear you talk right next to me. No more mails, no more texts, no more phone calls – just us._

_What I'm trying to say here … is that for my birthday present …_

_I want to meet you._

The more he read of her mail, the faster his heart started to beat, and the more red his cheeks became. Soon, he was in a complete daze, only half registering what was going on and what she had asked for. Did she really just say that she wanted to meet him? She meant offline, right? There was no doubt mistaking that part; if she wanted to meet him in The World, she'd have said so. No, she said she wanted to meet him. Him. In real life. In the physical realm. Where she could see him. Where he could see her. Where they could … Kaitou's eyes widened and violently shook his head to get rid of the mental images.

He slapped both his cheeks, as a sort of wake-up call. "Come on Kai, pull yourself together. She's just asking you to see her offline. That's all. Don't read further into it."

Then again, how could he act normal when she asked something like this? Recently they have certainly became a lot closer together, after the Twilight Incident, and after they've been sending personal information to each other … but this? This was a real life meeting she was proposing. It went miles further than just asking for a picture, and for the life of him, he couldn't imagine why he was being so weird about it. It was just a meeting. Meeting BlackRose – Akira, the girl he's been with every day for almost a year … Online it was easy to hide his real shy self. No one could hear him stumble over his words, or see him avoid their eyes if they talked to him. No, online he was Kite, the one who saved The World – the one who wouldn't get all tongue tied over a simple offline meeting!

Kaitou didn't want to admit; but he was really petrified of seeing her in front of him. There were just too many things that could go wrong. He was already shy when he talked to her on the phone, what would become of him when she was standing right in front of him? Could he even look her in the eye? Could he be the brave Kite he had always been and talk to her without stuttering?

Even though he was terrified at this sudden turn of events; Kaitou secretly really wanted to see Akira. Sure he was shy, but that didn't stop him from wanting to see her picture. Or know her name. Or hear her voice. He really did want to see her offline, he wanted to enjoy her presence for real this time – even if it scared the hell out of him.

He decided to not answer her mail right away. His head was all messed up and he wanted to sleep on it, before he replied anyway. However, there were only 4 days left until her birthday … he got nervous just by thinking about it. Kaitou decided to clear his head by logging onto The World (setting himself as invisible for his friends) and went ahead to kill a bunch of monsters.

* * *

Akira impatiently tapped her fingers on her keyboard. It had been 4 hours since she had sent that mail to Kaitou. Four hours of agonizing anticipation. She wondered why he hadn't sent a reply yet. Or if he even read the mail at all. Maybe he wasn't home yet – then what could have happened to him? Should she call him to confirm he read it? Or maybe that was being too pushy? Should she just send another mail instead? Or do nothing at all and wait until he sends something?

"Arg, you drive me nuts Kaitou!" she yelled out loud while gripping the sides of her head.

Waiting for his reply was too painful … she worked up all her courage to send that mail, and now she had to wait until he finally replied. What would he say?

Akira really wanted to meet Kaitou, she realized that today. After she had hung up from their phone call, her thoughts never once left him. She thought about seeing him for real, to do away with cellphones or computers. To see him in front of her. That adorable boy, the one who had saved The World, and saved her ass countless of times as well. She _had _to see him, there were too many fantasies floating in her head that drove her nuts. Just this once … for her birthday … she wanted to see him.

"That's it, I'm calling him," she said annoyed and grabbed her phone.

She scrolled through her contact list and picked out Kaitou's name. The phone started to dial his number and it went over a few times. The phone was answered and Akira sat up straight in her chair.

"Have you checked your mail?" was the first thing she said.

It was silent on the other line, and Akira was beginning to think that Kaitou didn't really pick up.

"Uhm," he finally said. It was like a nervous whisper. "Yeah."

So he _did_ read it! That sneaky bastard never answered her! "Well, what do you say!"

"…"

"Come on, don't be shy – spit it out!"

"I-I … I'm …"

"Well!"

"I'd be honored!" he finally said.

"… Really?"

"Yes …"

"Good, because I'm inviting you on my birthday. You better come!"

"Well ... I uhh, I don't have your address."

"I'll mail it to you later."

"What about the time?"

"Whenever you can get over here I suppose."

"I might not have enough money for the train or bus though …"

"Well, if you really don't have enough to come see me … I'll send you some money then."

"No! I can't accept something like that. I'll figure something out … I guess."

"So, you're really coming?"

"Yeah, I'll try."

"You can bring your friend too, if you'd like. Maybe you two can split the costs of coming over here or something."

"You mean Yasuhiko? I don't know if he'd like to come, I would have to talk about it to him first."

"Just tell him I have a female friend who is single and is looking for a boyfriend."

"Haha – sure, that'll convince him. I guess I'll ask him during school tomorrow."

"What about your parents? Would they let you go?"

"Oh, my parents? Yeah, they'll definitely let me go. They're not strict or anything. As long as I tell them where I'm going I'll be fine."

"Great! I'm planning on going to a theme park by the way, for my birthday – you know."

"Oh … uhhhh."

"Don't worry, I'll pay for the entree fee. I mean, if you already came all the way over to see me, that's the least I could do … right?"

"I'd rather you not pay anything for me."

"What – can't have a girl paying for you?"

"I didn't mean it like that …"

"Then don't make it sound like that. I'll be paying for you whether you like it or not. I want to have some fun with you."

"Who else will be coming?"

"Just my friend, Risa, no one else."

"Well I guess I should start looking at some travel planning websites."

"Oh, right! I'll send you my address right away. We will all meet up there first, and my dad will drop us off at the theme park. Wait, let me pull up a new mail …" Akira started typing a new mail to Kaitou, typing in her address to her house.

"There! I sent it."

"Wow, I got it, that was fast. Alright, let me check to see which bus or trains I can take to get there." She heard him start to type on his keyboard.

"There's a train station not far from my house. If you go to that one, I can come pick you up."

"Three thousand yen! Ugh …"

"It's that much to take the train?"

"Yeah, back and forth. I don't have that much money …"

"Again, I'll gladly send you some money if you need it."

"No, no – that's not necessary. I'll figure something out. Maybe my parents will feel generous."

"So uhm, what time would you arrive?"

"Let's see, from here to there it will take about 2 hours. The earliest I can get is at 10 AM. So I guess I'll be there around 12 PM."

"Cool, I'll arrive half an hour earlier – you know, just in case. I think you remember what I look like, right?"

She heard him laugh on the other side. "How could I forget?"

"Just in case, I'll be wearing a pink sweater so you can recognize me."

"Don't worry, I won't miss you. I think you'd have a harder time recognizing me."

"Light brown hair, blue eyes, 1.70 m tall? No, I don't think I'll have a hard time with that."

"We'll see about that."

"Yeah, we'll see … I guess I'll see you in 4 days then."

"I guess so."

"It's a promise, right?"

"It's a promise."

"Good, I don't want to be stood up. I'll beat you up if you do."

"I wouldn't even dare."

"Well, I'm going to go to bed now."

"Okay, good night, Akira."

"Good night … Kai."

Akira finally pressed the red button on her phone and let out a long, deep breath. During the duration of the phone call, Akira had never felt so nervous, yet excited at the same time before in her life.

Just in 4 days, she was going to meet Kaitou!


	4. Theme Park

**Meet Me**

**A/N:** I was having fun writing about their meeting and making it as clichéd as possible, so this is a very _looong_ chapter. The whole meeting is written in Akira's point of view. Hope you enjoy it.

**Chapter 4 – **_**Theme Park  


* * *

**_

"Yasu, you have to do me a really big favour. _Please _come with me on my offline meeting with BlackRose."

Yasuhiko spit out his drink in Kaitou's face. "You're meeting her! Wait, why do I have to come?"

"I'm too nervous to face her alone! I don't think I'll even be able to say a word around her when I'm alone," he said while wiping of the liquid on his face.

"Yeah but … why do I have to come?"

"Because her friend, who is single, will be there too?"

Yasuhiko leaned back in his chair, his eyebrows slightly raised. "You're lying."

"Honestly. Please come with me? We'll be going to a theme park as well!"

"So it's like a date?"

"Uhh, well it's going to be our first meeting, so I guess it's a date? But not in a romantic way or anything."

"Will anyone else come? By that I mean, any other guys?"

"She only mentioned her female friend, no one else."

His friend looked up the ceiling, deep in though. Kaitou wished he could convince him to come, because he was scared shitless to go meet Akira on his own. If he didn't have his friend around to make him feel less alone and nervous, then it would be a disaster.

The black haired guy pushed his glasses up his nose and smiled. "When?"

Kaitou broke into a huge smile; relieved he wasn't going to be meeting her alone. For the rest of the day during school, Kaitou and Yasuhiko discussed the details in visiting Akira. He had managed to convince Yasuhiko to come, but he still had to pull money from somewhere to get over there. Kaitou himself didn't have much money, so he would have to ask his parents if he could borrow some money. That's the first thing he did when he finally arrived home again.

"Mom, can I borrow some money?" he asked and put on the sweetest face he could muster.

His mother looked up from her television, slightly suspicious. "What for?" she asked.

"Well you see, I want to meet this girl and go to a theme park."

"A girl?" repeated his mother. "Wait, are you asking money to go on a date with a girl?"

Kaitou knew she was getting this all wrong, but he also knew that his mother was a sap for young love, and decided to play along. "Yeah uhm … it's this Saturday and I need some money to go see her."

His mom held up her finger to tell him to shush it and then dialed a number in her phone. "Hi honey! Guess what! Kaitou isn't gay!"

The boy felt like a ton of bricks just got dumped all over his body. Gay? His parents thought he was _gay?_

"No, really! He just asked for some money to pay for his date!" Whatever his dad said on the phone made his mom burst out into laughing.

His parents really were under the impression he was gay. Alright, so what he never had any interests in girls – or so his parents think – that didn't mean they could just assume he liked guys instead. Then again, he _was_ strangely involved with Yasuhiko's comatose state … and he never had any female friends … Okay, so maybe he made it seem like he was gay, but he definitely wasn't! If anything, Akira being his best female friend should disprove that! Not that he would say that out loud …

His mom hung up on the phone. "Alright, your dad is absolutely ecstatic about your date, so we're giving you 3500 yen. How does that sound like?"

Kaitou smiled. "Perfect."

"But we'll only give it to you on the day you're going! Okay?"

"Thanks mom!"

Kaitou then happily skipped to his room. He sat in front of his computer, placed on the goggles and logged onto The World. He figured Yasuhiko would be logged on right now and playing, which meant it was the perfect opportunity to talk to him. As his trademark orange avatar appeared on the screen, Kaitou looked through his member addresses to find the name Orca, then clicked his name to send him a private message.

"Hey, I just got the money for the train ride," he typed.

A few seconds later, he got a reply.

"How much did you get?"

"3500 Yen."

"Ouch, you can barely buy a soda with the leftover money you'd have after the train ride."

"I know, I don't think I can buy food or anything either :-(."

"Well, I can let you borrow some money from me ;-)."

"Really? You're awesome!"

"If you promise to do my homework for the next two weeks."

"I knew there would be a catch."

"I'll pay for foods and drinks while we're over there, and in return you make my homework – deal?"

"Fine, you bloodsucker :-(."

"So when does the train leave on Saturday?"

"It leaves at 10 AM, so you better arrive early!"

"Well of course! But what time are we going back then?"

"The latest train we can get is 10 PM, so we'd be there for about 10 hours."

"10 PM? That's so late! Couldn't you pick one earlier?"

"Hey, I want to spend as much time as possible with her, so deal with it."

"You're obsessed man :-)."

"Don't forget I'm making your homework here :-)."

"Jerk."

A chime rang in his ears and it tore his eyes off of the chatbox. He had gotten a new mail. Was it Akira? He clicked on the mail and saw that it indeed came from Akira.

_Heya!_

_So, do you know the permanent times? Did you get the money to pay for everything? Is your friend coming along as well?_

_I'm so excited! :-)_

Kaitou couldn't help but smile at her mail. Her mails always had that kind of effect on him. He began to type his reply.

_Hi._

_I spoke to my friend, Yasuhiko, and he agreed to come along with me. The train is leaving at 10 AM on Saturday, and it'll take about 2 hours before we arrive, so we'll be there around 12 PM. We will be going back home at 10 PM in the evening. Oh, and my parents gave me the money for the train ticket. So all is well :-)._

_P.S: my parents apparently thought that I was gay T_T_

He still couldn't believe that his parents thought he was gay … if he ever told that to Yasuhiko … well he wouldn't tell him, ever! Instead, he began to fantasize about his meeting with Akira. What would it be like to see her face to face? His face heated up just by thinking about it; it would be extremely nerve wrecking! The all familiar chime sounded through his speakers. He clicked on Akira's reply.

_Okay cool, so I'll be picking you up at 12 PM. Remember, I'll be wearing a pink vest!_

_Also … gay? Are you?_

_;-)_

Kaitou bit his lip and cocked his head to the side.

_I am not! It's just that for some reason my parents thought I was. I guess I really don't talk about girls that often …_

He clicked send. A few second later, he got Akira's reply.

_You never talk about me? :-(_

Riiight, Akira was a girl. Well he _did _talk about her … with Yasuhiko – not with his parents. Kaitou decided to reply with sarcasm instead.

_Why, want me to? :-)_

He didn't realize he was basically tempting her to admit that she wanted him to be talking about her – it was like one big flirting scene, really. Akira's reply took a bit longer this time, but he opened it up immediately when he got it.

_:-)_

That's it? A smiley face? Where was the rest of her mail? Wait, she was toying around with him, wasn't she? That kind of ticked him off, yet at the same time he couldn't help but crack a smile. He decided to go to bed after that, he said good night to Yasuhiko, and sent a last mail to Akira as well. It was time to go to bed.

The problem was, just like last night, that he couldn't seem to fall asleep. He was plagued by thoughts of the upcoming offline meeting with Akira, and it haunted him even in his dreams. The meeting was coming up soon, and he couldn't stop imagining what it would be like. What would he do, what would he say, what would happen? Most importantly; would Akira still like him when she met him face to face? He had heard of stories that people could have a completely different personality offline than online … in fact Yasuhiko would be a prime example of that scenario. He acted like a noble guy online, but to him, offline, he was just a really arrogant jerk.

If people could drastically be different than who they appeared to be online, would Akira still be the same? Would he still be the same? Well he didn't act much different, except he was less shy online and used smileys a lot. Akira probably wasn't all that different either, at least, not according to his conversations on the phone with her. She acted exactly as her online persona: talkative, loud and bossy. Kaitou smiled as he thought of Akira's personality. While she might be talkative, she always knew the right thing to say to cheer up his day. She might be loud, but it pulled him out of his shell and made him join in on her conversation. She might be bossy, but she always had the right intentions. They were great partners together.

Would they be great partners offline as well?

A frown appeared on his face, he really couldn't stop thinking about this. Would everything really turn out alright when he finally met her? He sure hoped so … and with that, he finally fell asleep.

The coming next days before the meeting went by real fast. With each day, he confirmed the details with Akira to make sure that he wouldn't arrive on a different station, or that she would be picking them up too late. Or anything that could go wrong, really. He made sure Yasuhiko had enough money as well, to pay for the trip and for the theme park. He really didn't like the fact that Akira had to pay for his ticket at the theme park, he felt like he was robbing her from her money. On her birthday no less! However, he vowed to himself to pay her back, or to make it up with something else. He also made sure to make Yasuhiko's homework, as they did make a deal.

The details of the trip were the least important things on his mind though. Every day he grew more nervous and anxious at the thought of meeting Akira. Soon he could look into her brown eyes and hear her real voice. See her real smile, and maybe even be able to touch her. Friendly touching, of course. That didn't ease his nerves though. He was nervous because he knew he would clam up in front of her and blush like crazy. He was simply petrified at facing her for real. What if she didn't like him? What if he managed to make a fool out of himself? There were just too many things that made him worried as hell.

"So, this is our last phone call until we see each other tomorrow," said the voice of Akira. She had called him during the night, before the final day.

"Yeah, it's strange." He lied, it wasn't strange, it was super bizarre!

"I'm kind of hoping you won't be disappointed when you see me …" she said barely in a whisper.

Kaitou straightened up; shocked that she would think that. "Of course not! Why would I be?"

"I don't know! It's just weird, I've never met someone from online before!"

"But it's just me – we saved The World together. Just pretend we're meeting in-game." He was one to talk; he was scared as well. Maybe he should take his own advice.

He heard Akira snort. "Yeah, right. It'll just be like fighting monsters, right, Kaitou?"

"Okay, bad analogy. Well, just relax. It's only me. And my friend."

"Aren't you nervous though? You seem so calm and collected …"

He did? He was pretty sure he was freaking out over every little detail every night. Maybe he was just really good at hiding his own fears and nervousness. The boy decided to tell her the truth.

"I am … I'm just not very vocal about it."

Akira was a lot more willing to admit that she was anxious, unlike him. That didn't help calm him down though. Every time he heard Akira say that there were only X amount of days left, he felt a pit in his stomach that would never go away. She only made him more nervous by telling him how nervous _she _was. It was an endless cycle.

"I better not be the only one!" she threatened him, which made Kaitou chuckle and ease some of his nerves.

"Sooo … pink shirt eh?"

"Wrong, it's a pink _vest_. There's a difference you know."

"Alright, pink vest then. I'll just be wearing a nice white shirt and some black pants."

"Like the rest of Japan. Can't you wear something more obvious?"

"You're the one who's wearing something obvious, I think that if at least one of us spots the other, the problem will be solved, right?"

"Just make sure you bring your phone, in case we don't see each other."

"Of course. I even memorized your phone number in case I do forget my phone on accident."

"That's kind of creepy Kaitou …"'

They both started to laugh, their nervousness slowly slipping away. As their laughter died down, Kaitou felt a bit more calmed down. It was still scary to meet her, but at least he really wanted to go, no matter what he was feeling.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Akira," he said, starting their final goodbye.

"Could you send me a text message when you board the train? I would like to know, just to be sure …"

"Sure, I'll send you one."

"Alright, I guess this is good night then."

"Yeah, sleep well. You need your sleep for tomorrow, haha."

"You too. Bye now."

"Bye."

With that final word, Kaitou finally hung up. He laid down in his bed and stared at the ceiling. He should be trying to get some sleep, but he knew that he would be thinking for hours on end before he finally did fall asleep, so he figured he might as well stay up a bit more. Tomorrow was finally the day he'd be meeting her. In fact, it was less than 20 hours that he would be meeting her face to face.

To see Akira for real, what would it be like? He couldn't wait …

After hours of thinking about his meeting, he managed to finally get some sleep. He woke up at 9 in the morning, brushed his teeth as well as his hair. Pulled on some neat clothes and went to eat breakfast. Soon, Yasuhiko would come pick him up so they could be dropped off at the train station.

Kaitou felt way too sleepy to realize the real importance of this day. He didn't get much sleep, he'd been thinking too much. It was a miracle he even got some sleep, as he was sure he'd stay up all night long, pondering his thoughts. It was only when he got a text message from Akira, telling him to have a nice trip, did he realize the importance of this day.

_He was going to meet Akira._ In only three hours he would be meeting her. Suddenly, he felt sick to his stomach – he was going to meet BlackRose! That felt so weird to say; it felt so unreal. However, the plans were made, and he was going to be leaving soon. It was definitely real, and it made him tense to the core.

Yasuhiko finally dropped by, sleepy as well, telling Kaitou to hurry up before they missed the train. Kaitou's parents drove them to the train station and dropped them off. His mom gave him the 3500 yen to pay for the ticket, along with a big and suggestive wink. He really didn't want to know what his mom was really trying to tell him, so he quickly turned around and walked over to the register.

They both bought their tickets and sat on one of the few benches to wait for the train to come.

"So Kaitou, are you nervous?" finally asked Yasuhiko while he rubbed his own eyes, moving his glasses away.

"Extremely."

"Please don't clam up and blush in front of her. It's not manly."

Kaitou glared at him. "Well, I'm sorry I'm not manly. I can't help it that I'm feeling nervous. Heck, I brought you along to help to reduce that! You're not helping at all!"

"Calm down Kai, it's only a girl."

"She's not_ just_ a girl. She's my _partner_, and she deserves a hell of a lot more respect than 'only a girl'," he spat back at Yasuhiko. He didn't know why he was on the offensive so much, but his emotions were seriously going crazy.

"Okay, I get your point. Geez. Freak."

They remained in silence until the train finally arrived. Kaitou swallowed a big lump in his throat as he stood up to face the train.

"Well, let's go," said Yasuhiko and pushed Kaitou through the door.

They looked around for a nice compartment to sit in, and finally decided to sit all the way at the back and settled themselves. Kaitou took the seat next to the window and stared outside. Soon, the train started to move and they were off.

"Oh right, I promised Akira I'd sent her a message when I boarded the train," said Kaitou and he took out his phone.

He flipped it open and started to write a message to Akira.

_We just boarded the train. I'll see you in 2 hours._

He wanted to add a smiley, but realized that he was so nervous right now, a smiley only seemed fake to him. He hit the send button and waited, waited for those two dreadful hours to pass.

* * *

"The 12 o' clock train will be arriving soon," hollered through the intercom.

Akira's breath got stuck in her throat and she bit her lip to prevent herself from squealing like a little girl. Kaitou was going to be there soon! _Very soon!_ She was now a mixed bag of emotions; feeling nervous, excited, happy, anxiety, fear, and impatience. Her heart was now also beating way too fast for its own good, but it's not like she could control it when her thoughts were only about Kaitou arriving for real. Brown eyes scanned the abandoned railway, looking for any signs the train would be coming.

"Akira, calm down – why are you getting so worked up?"

Her eyes turned sharply to look at her friend Risa, who was sitting on a bench. "Calm! How can I be calm!"

"You're just meeting a friend, right? Why get so nervous about it?"

"Because I have never seen him before. This is the first time I'll see him offline …"

"Aha, well then I guess you do have reason to panic. Continue on."

The rails suddenly started to tremble, loud metal sounding noises could be heard from it. Wind started to rush her by, and in the distant, she could hear the train coming. Akira whipped her head around to stare at the train, which was coming this way.

"The 12 o' clock train has arrived," said the intercom.

Akira straightened her pink vest, something which she wore so that Kaitou could recognize her. She fiddled with her fingers and stood up from the bench, walking a bit closer to the train. This was really happening; he was in that train and would meet her in under a minute. The girl swallowed and wanted to slap herself silly for being so god damned nervous. The closer the train got, the more she felt as if her legs were made out of stone. For a few seconds, she even forgot how to breathe.

Soon the black train had rolled in to a complete halt and the shiny metal doors slowly opened. Akira's eyes grew wide as she started to look for Kaitou, her eyes sticking on the doors like glue. She started to walk sideways as she saw the people exit the compartments, she had to find him! Her friend Risa had finally noticed Akira was walking away from her, so she started to walk after her as well.

People were pouring out of the train, holding briefcases, or some sort of small luggage. They were mostly tall businessmen or tourists – no sign of Kaitou or his friend. The seconds passed by as more and more people left the platform. For a second, Akira was afraid she was not going to spot him and her anxiety rose. Then her cellphone suddenly rang and it scared the hell out of her. She quickly picked up.

"Hello?"

"We just arrived, where are you?" It was Kaitou's voice. He was really there. On the same platform as she was.

"I'm all the way at the beginning of the train, where are you?"

"We were sitting at the back, let's meet halfway."

"Okay," she said and hung up the phone. That phone call did not get rid of any of the nerves she was holding, in fact, her nerves got amplified after that phone call, because now she really couldn't deny the fact that Kaitou was there, for her.

Akira pushed herself through the crowds of people, walking towards the middle of the platform, with Risa not far behind. She was only seconds away from meeting him, seeing him face to face, looking into his blue eyes. Akira almost got thrown on the ground by a person who rushed past her, a business man who was in a hurry. She turned her head towards the back of the businessman, letting out her anger and as well as other built up emotions.

"Jerk!" she screamed at him, giving him the finger in the process.

"Akira … ?"

Her mind shut down and for a few seconds, Akira was paralyzed. That was the voice of Kaitou. A bit different, less computerized, but it was definitely the boy she was meeting. She brushed her brown hair behind her ear and slowly … _slooooowwwly_ turned her head around, her body following. Brown eyes made contact with blue eyes, and she was sure she felt a spark of electricity run through her body.

"H-hi," she managed to say. Her face started to heat up.

She couldn't take her eyes off of the boy in front of her. Slightly taller than she was, he was standing there with his hands in his pocket and his head was bent down a little bit, probably staring at the floor. His hair was shorter than she had seen on his old picture, as it was now partially covering his ears in light brown bangs. She could see that his arms were trembling a bit – maybe he was as nervous as she was. Akira didn't realize that his cheeks were red, he was blushing … how adorable. She swallowed when she realized she was probably red as well, so she turned her eyes away from him.

"Uhm, this is Risa, my friend," she said after a while of staring at Kaitou. "Risa, this is Kaitou," she then looked over to his left and saw his taller friend stare down at her, "and that one with the glasses is Yasuhiko."

Risa bent down her head. "Nice to meet you."

The boys did the same.

"Well uhh, shall we head back to my place?" said Akira fast. Her nerves were still not under control. In fact, they couldn't possibly be worse now that Kaitou's blue eyes were staring at her. Oh god, those blue eyes, they looked so much better than in the picture! "Or do you guys want something to drink first?"

"I'm fine, I'm not sure about Kaitou though," said Yasuhiko with an air of superiority.

Kaitou's head swiftly turned to face his friends. "I'm f-fine!" Though his face said otherwise.

Akira had to tear her own eyes away from Kaitou to function normally again. "Okay then, we'll just head back home," said Akira as she started to walk towards the exit. Risa nudged her in her side with her elbow and smiled, basically telling her to lighten up.

It's not like she didn't want to; she was a wreck with Kaitou walking closely behind her. How come it was so hard to act natural around him? She could feel his eyes burn into her back. With every step she took, he was there, right behind her. It was unbelievably petrifying! She had no idea how she was still able to walk when her legs felt like metal.

"How did you get here?" asked Yasuhiko, his voice startling Akira.

Risa turned to them with a smile. "We used our bikes."

"Wait, are you saying that …"

"Yup, you're going to sit on our bike rack as we drive you two back to Akira's place."

They were now walking inside of the bike storage, where everyone safely stored their bike if they went to the train station. Akira nervously looked around for her own bike, and finally spotted it. She took out her key, unlocked it, then rolled it out of the rack. Her friend did the same. She stood still when she noticed Kaitou was right behind her, it made her jump a little. This was way too freaky, having him this close. She brushed the hair away from her face and shyly looked away from him.

"Uhm …" he started with his tiny, soft voice.

She looked at him with big eyes, wondering what he would say. Her heart started to thump in her throat, her eyes becoming mesmerized by his presence.

"Happy birthday …" he finally said after a few seconds of silence. His eyes were pointed at the ground, completely avoiding her own.

Akira couldn't help but crack a smile at him. "What, no handshake?"

Kaitou's eyes were pulled from the ground as he looked in her own brown ones. "Oh, r-right!" He nervously took his hand from his pocket and stuck it out for her.

Their hands intertwined, and the feeling of Kaitou's hand against her skin made her feel weak, she felt she was about to faint or something. Maybe there was too much blood rushing to her head. His hand was big and bony, kind of awkward, but kind of cute. She slowly loosened her grip on his hand, letting her fingers trail the inside of his palm as she finally let go. She was sure her face was red, but at the moment, she hardly even cared anymore.

"Are you ready?" asked Risa, who was ahead of her and standing on the street already with her bike in tow. Yasuhiko was leaning against the bike, apparently having no problems riding on the back.

"Yeah, coming!" answered Akira as she rolled her bike over towards the street, with Kaitou silently walking beside her.

"Okay, Kaitou – hop on," she said as she positioned herself on her bike.

"Uhm, maybe I should be the one to ride the bike."

Akira rolled her eyes. "Don't be silly, it's my bike, hop on."

"Yeah, but it's your birthday. That, and I'm probably heavier than you."

Akira couldn't believe he managed to strung a complete sentence together. She also couldn't believe that he wanted to ride her bike and make her sit on the back. It was her bike, she invited him here – it was only natural that she was the one to ride.

"No, I invited you here, let me ride."

Kaitou wasn't budging though. "Y-you … you're paying for the theme park … the least I can do is ride your bike to your home. Please, let me do it, as a favour?"

She couldn't possibly say no after he basically begged to let him ride her bike, complete with adorable big eyes and flushed cheeks. So cute. She stood aside, giving him access to the steering wheel. "Fine."

Kaitou grabbed the wheel and sat down on the seat and waited for Akira to sit on the back. The girl slowly sat down on the rack, keeping both her legs on one side. "Just follow Risa," she said as she waved at Risa to go ahead.

Risa started to drive away with Yasuhiko on the back, and Kaitou positioned his pedal. "Are you good to go?" he asked unsure.

Akira grabbed the end of her rack, to steady herself and stared at his back. "Yup, now go before we lose sight of her."

He began to pedal and they were finally off. Akira stared at his skinny back, finding it amazing that he could still be so scrawny, but still be a boy. Not just any boy, it was Kaitou. The all mighty Kite. Akira bit back a giggle and coughed instead to cover it up. She opted to stare at the back of his head. His hair looked so smooth and silky, flowing gracefully with the wind, she wondered what kind of shampoo he used to get it like that.

Now that his eyes weren't on her anymore, she could finally relax a little bit. She was really happy he was there though, riding her bike. She felt very tempted to poke his back, just to check if he was real or not. Of course he was real; Kaitou really was riding her bike, but it felt kind of like a dream. A sudden bump in the road made her almost lose her balance on the rack and she grabbed the first thing she could hold onto.

Which happened to be the side of Kaitou's white shirt.

Her fingers were clasped around his shirt, but he didn't say a thing, and kept on pedaling. Akira's face started getting more red at the thought of holding him, but she didn't want to let go. Instead, she wanted to hold onto him forever. Her fingers loosened a bit on the fabric though, and she was contemplating whether or not to retrieve her hand, or to actually hold him for balance. It seemed a bit dirty, to hold him already – they had just met! Well, technically they did, but they've known each other for a year.

Another bump in the road made the decision for her. She almost lost balance again, and her hand instinctively shot out to grab his side, while her other hand was clutching the back of his shirt. Again, Kaitou didn't say a word. Then again, Akira was at a loss for words herself; grabbing onto a guy like that, but this was Kaitou, not just some guy. Her fingers relaxed as she continued to hold onto him. She could feel his body warmth under her fingers and she wondered if he always felt this warm to touch. It felt very comforting to have him this close, and to have her fingers wrapped around his skin. Well, not really his skin, but close enough. She wondered what he was thinking right now; did he mind that she was doing this, or did he actually like it? Akira's cheeks once again turned red at her own thoughts.

As if holding onto him wasn't a big enough of a step already, without even thinking about it, Akira slowly pressed her face against his back. Kaitou's back tensed and he straightened up at the contact of Akira's cheek. She didn't know what spurred her on, but she did it. She was now completely leaning against him and holding him. His back felt oddly comforting and it felt really good to stay beside him like that. Kaitou still hadn't said a word, aside from being jumpy. Her cheeks were filled with blood, but Akira didn't mind; he couldn't see her anyway. She wished she could stay like that forever.

Forever didn't last long enough when Risa exclaimed that they were finally there. Kaitou started to slow down and Akira finally pulled herself away from his back and looked around. She was indeed in the street her house was located at. She hadn't paid attention to her surroundings at all, she was kind of focused on Kaitou the whole time. As they arrived at her house, Akira jumped off the bike and saw Yasuhiko do the same.

"Okay, we're here, just park the bike in front of the door and lock it," she said as she walked through her front yard to reach the door of her house.

Risa jogged up to her, having parked her bike as well, with the boys slowly falling behind her. "Hey Akira, that guy is kinda cute," she whispered.

"Which one?" she asked.

"The black haired one!"

Akira opened her front door and chuckled. Yasuhiko cute? She turned her head around to look at the boys, and upon meeting Kaitou's eyes she immediately turned back again. No one could be cuter than Kaitou. She stepped inside of her house and waited for everyone to be inside.

"My dad will be bringing us to the theme park as soon as he gets back home. Which is in about half an hour or so," she explained and finally closed the door.

Kaitou and Yasuhiko looked around her house in curiosity.

"Until then, let's hang out in my room."

"Where's your brother?" asked Kaitou.

Akira smiled at him. "He's out with some friends right now. My younger brother is also with some friends. We're alone in this house at the moment."

"Yeah, so please don't rape us or anything!" called Risa from upstairs. She had already gone to Akira's room.

Kaitou's eyes widened at the prospect that he could be a rapist in their eyes. "I could never do that to Akira!" he said back.

Akira laughed at Kaitou's shocked face. He really was adorable in real life.

"Well, I'm not making any promises," mumbled Yasuhiko as he went upstairs a well, leaving Akira and Kaitou alone.

They stood in front of each other, but avoided eye contact. Akira started to think back to the bike ride, and wondered if Kaitou didn't mind her touching him. She brushed her fingers through her hair and tried to think of something to say. She was horribly tongue tied when she was in front of him, it was amazing really. Usually she couldn't stop blabbing.

"So … uhm," she started.

Kaitou's eyes shot up and he looked at her, waiting for her to finish her sentence. That gaze of his really did a number on her. It made her breath get stuck in her throat, making it hard to breathe, as well finding no words to say at the moment. Should it really be that hard?

"Here we are," she said and ended it with a nervous laugh. Great going Akira, she just made it even more awkward.

"Y-yeah," he replied in a tiny voice.

"It's kind of weird to see you for real." She gave him a smile when he looked confused. "After everything that happened to us … in the end you're still a normal boy."

"I'm not sure if that was an insult or not," he said with a laugh.

Good, she was breaking the ice with him, they were both acting a bit more normal now. Akira placed her hands on her side and gave him a wink. "Take it however you want it. Now let's go up to my room before our friends start wrecking it."

They both walked upstairs and the first thing Akira saw was that Yasuhiko had planted himself on her computer chair, and was checking out his mail on the internet.

"Hey! Who told you that you could use my computer!" she said angrily.

Risa, who was sitting on her bed, shook her head. "I couldn't stop him. It's like a drug addict needing his drug or something."

"Sorry, I had to check my mail for a second – and since your computer was already on … uhh yeah," explained Yasuhiko with a broad smile. Then he clicked on something on her desktop and the picture of him and Kaitou opened up. "I didn't know you had a picture of me."

She didn't know why, but that made her feel really embarrassed, because she had saved the picture to her desktop and now Kaitou found out about it. "It's not a picture of _you_, it's a picture of Kaitou," she snapped at him. Akira walked over to him and tore the mouse away from his fingers and clicked the picture away. "Get off," she threatened.

"I'm going, I'm going," he said defeated and got off her computer chair. "Just don't forget to log me out!"

"Cool, you have a guinea pig," exclaimed Kaitou excited all of the sudden. He was standing at her prairie dog cage, poking his finger through the holes to pet her prairie dog.

Akira hopped over to his side with a slight smile on her lips. "Actually, it's a prairie dog, and it's a female, her name is Hana. A lot of people confuse it with a big guinea pig though."

Kaitou turned his head towards Akira, and it suddenly dawned on her that she was standing right next to him, and his face was awfully close to hers. She adverted her eyes, scared to have his eyes stare at her so closely.

"What a strange name for a pet," he remarked, turning his attention back on her pet.

"It's better than Ms. Fluffballs, like Risa suggested a few years ago."

"Ms. Fluffballs is a really cute name!" said Rise with disdain.

"Yes, I agree. Ms. Fluffballs would make an awesome name," said Yasuhiko who was sitting next to Risa on her bed.

Akira ignored the two idiots and turned to Kaitou instead, who was following her prairie dog with his eyes. "Do you want to hold her?" she asked.

A smile was all she needed to know his answer and she took out Hana from her cage. She carefully handed her over to Kaitou, who held her against his chest.

"Just be careful, she tends to pee on people."

Kaitou looked at her with dull eyes, his smile disappeared from his face. "Thanks for the warning." He then started to pet the prairie dog and soon his smile returned.

Akira couldn't stop herself from watching the boy. Kaitou was in her room, petting her prairie dog. Was it really her birthday, or was it a dream? His arm brushed against hers on accident and Akira pulled back, startled at the sudden contact. Kaitou was enjoying cuddling Hana, and it was kind of making her jealous.

"What a cute pet you have," he said while grinning to her, stroking Hana's head. His eyes suddenly grew wide and started to shriek. "Ah, it's peeing on me!"

Akira swiftly took Hana away from him and quickly placed her back in the cage – but the damage was already done. Kaitou was staring at his white shirt that was now drenched with yellow, prairie dog pee. Yasuhiko found this hilarious and started to laugh at his friend as loud as he could, which made Kaitou's face turn scarlet.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have let you hold her. She really likes to pee on people … Here come with me, we'll clean that up." Akira walked past the embarrassed Kaitou and she made her way over to her bathroom, with Kaitou closely behind.

She turned on the light and grabbed a towel, which she then placed underneath the faucet and drenched it in fresh water. A few drops of soap on it was all she needed to remove the pee stain. "Come over here," she said and waved at him.

Kaitou stood in front of her, his eyes never once leaving the floor. Poor boy, he just got peed on. Akira really shouldn't find this situation funny, but secretly, she really did, but to spare his feelings, she tried to hold in her laughter as much as possible. Akira sat down on the edge of her bath and grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled him closer, then started to rub the wet towel on the dirty spot. There was a thick silence, with the only sound that could be heard was the fabric brushing up against each other.

"There, it's coming out – you have to be fast with these things, or you'll never get it out," she said, trying to break the silence.

"Ah." Not much of a response.

The cleaning continued, and his white shirt was turning back to his old colour.

"Just be glad she didn't pee on your head. She loves to sit in my hair, so one time, I let her stay on my head. After a while, I was blinded by having pee trickle down in my eye." She didn't know why she was revealing this embarrassing thing she never told anyone about, but she wanted to make him feel more comfortable around him.

It worked, Kaitou let out a friendly chuckle. "Really?"

"God, I thought I would never get that pee out of my hair! It was so gross! I washed my hair so many times that day. Sometimes I still think I have that disgusting smell trapped in my hair."

Suddenly, Kaitou bent down to hover over her head, and she heard him actually _sniff_. He pulled back and laughed. "Smells nice to me."

What was that just now? Did he sniff her hair? Akira's cheeks started to burn red and she hastily avoided his look as she continued to clean his shirt. After a while, the pee was completely gone.

"There, it's gone now." She threw the wet towel in the hamper and stood up. Kaitou's blue eyes were staring at her face as she stood up, making her feel very self conscious. His lips pulled up into a smile, and his cheeks were raised, giving his eyes a sleepy kind of look. It was cute. He had a beautiful smile.

"Thanks."

A sudden sound of a door being shut was heard from downstairs. Akira walked over to the staircase and looked down. It was her dad.

"Akira! I'm home, I can drop you off now."

"Great!" she said excitedly and called Risa and Yasuhiko over.

The two boys introduced themselves to her dad, and after that, they were ushered into the car by Akira and soon, they were off to the theme park. Akira was sitting in the font, so she wouldn't have to worry about sitting right next to Kaitou, and being pressed up against him. Poor Risa was forced to sit back between two boys instead. It was kind of cruel – but it was also her birthday! It took only 15 minutes of driving to arrive at the theme park.

"When should I come pick you up?" her dad asked as everyone exited the car.

"Hey Kaitou," she tugged on his sleeve to get his attention. "When does your train leave?"

"It leaves at 10 PM tonight."

"Alright then, let's say pick us up at around 5, or 6 PM, dad."

Her dad waved goodbye and left the scene. The gang walked up to the entrance and paid for their entree ticket. Akira of course, paid for Kaitou's ticket as well, as he didn't have enough money to buy it himself.

"I'll pay you back," he whispered to her as she paid for his ticket.

Akira really didn't mind paying for him. If she had to pay money to be with Kaitou, then so be it. She entered the theme park with a smile on her face. At the entrance, they all got a map of the grounds, so they could see which rides there were. Akira opened her map up and looked to see which one she wanted to go to first.

Kaitou looked over her shoulder, which made her self conscious again. "I guess now it was a bad time to say I really hate rollercoasters."

Akira rose her eyebrows. "I wasn't planning on going into any of them anyway. They make me nauseous."

"Oh," he laughed nervously, "then never mind."

"How about we get something to eat first?" mentioned Yasuhiko as he looked on his own map. "I'm starving."

"Alright, let's go find a place to eat then," said Akira.

They all started to walk towards the food area, with Akira walking next to Kaitou, and Risa and Yasuhiko walking in front of them. They seemed to be talking very friendly with each other. Kaitou leaned closer to Akira, to whisper something.

"I mentioned your friend was single," he said softly, making sure they didn't hear him.

Akira's eyes widened and she threw her hand in front of her mouth to prevent the laugh from escaping. "You didn't!" she whispered back.

"He wouldn't come otherwise."

"I was just joking you know."

He grinned at her, showing his teeth. "I know."

Akira smiled back at him, glad that they were feeling more familiar with each other. "So, what would you like to eat?"

"Some French fries sounds good right now."

"I'm sure you can get them somewhere around here. How's your shirt by the way? Did it dry?" She looked down at his shirt, and it was indeed dry.

"Yeah, I'm glad. If not, I'll never hear the end of it from Yasuhiko."

"Want me to kick his ass if he does?" she asked showing her fist.

Kaitou merely smiled back at her, his blue eyes sparkling. Akira returned the smile and they walked together in silence for the rest of the way. They finally arrived at the food area. Risa told Akira what she wanted to eat and handed her over some money, then left so she could find some free spots for the four of them. It was then that Akira realized Kaitou had no money.

"Hey uhm, should I pay for your food?" she asked.

"No worries, I got it covered," said Yasuhiko. "I'll pay for his food, and he'll do my home work for two weeks. Fair trade, don't you think?"

"Very manipulative."

They all ordered their food and finally went to the seating area and tried to spot Risa in the crowd. Risa stood up from her seat and started to wave at them. Akira placed down her tray of food on the table and seated herself next to Risa. Kaitou sat on the opposite end of her and took a few French fries in his hand to put it in his mouth.

They were all enjoying their meal until something terrible happened.

"If it isn't the birthday girl." She recognized that voice. How could she forget? It was the same voice that kept on nagging her whenever he saw her.

She looked over at Risa, who shrugged innocently. "You did _not_," she threatened.

"I might have told him we were coming over here."

The face of Hagiya popped up right next to hers, which shocked Akira to death as she quickly retreated her head. This couldn't be happening! Hagiya was here!

"Happy birthday, Akira! What a coincidence that I would meet you here, huh?"

Akira stared at him wide eyed; he was standing right next to her. With that stupid smile on his face, like he was pretending to be innocent and actually met her by chance. _Whyyyy_ was he there? Why did he have to ruin her meeting with Kaitou? Speaking of Kaitou, what was he doing? She looked over and saw he was simply staring at Hagiya.

"It's nice to meet you guys, I'm Hagiya, I go to Akira's school."

Kaitou swallowed his French fries and smiled. "I'm Kaitou."

Yasuhiko merely gave him a small wave, not bothering to tell him his name.

"Hagiya, what are you doing _here_?" she finally spat out, overcoming her initial shock.

"The theme park is a public place, you know," he defended.

"Where are your friends?"

"I came alone."

Akira wanted to pull out her hair. "Who in the world goes to a theme park all alone! Are you _that _pathetic?"

"Well it's clear to me that he's been stalking you to give you a birthday present," mentioned Yasuhiko nonchalantly, not even looking up from his food.

Hagiya's cheeks turned red and he gazed at the ground. "I wasn't stalking her …" Then his eyes lit up. "But I do have a present I wish to give to you." He took out a small box from his pocket, it was wrapped in colorful paper, with a bow on top. He stretched his arms out towards her, urging her to take the present off his hands.

No way, she wasn't touching that. "I don't want it," she said seriously.

The smile on his face faltered, but his arms were still stretched in front of her. "Please, it's a birthday present."

"And I don't. Want. It."

"But …"

"She said she doesn't want it, please stop bothering Akira."

Akira looked up at Kaitou, who had stood up from his chair and was giving a real mean look towards Hagiya. _Yeah, tell him Kaitou!_

"W-well!" Hagiya stuttered from embarrassment. "S-shut up! She does too!"

"No Hagiya, I really don't. I can't accept your gift," she said in a low voice. "I can't accept the feelings you put into it."

"Why not?" he asked in a sad voice.

"Because!" Akira stood up from her seat as well and she marched right up to Kaitou. She linked her arm with his, suppressing the urge to blush like crazy, and looked at Hagiya. "Because the one I like is Kaitou, and not you. I'm sorry but I will never be able to return your feelings."

Kaitou's head turned red like crazy, it was as if a bomb had exploded in his face. She could feel his arm shake under her hold. He turned his head towards her and tried to say something to her, but only managed to look like a fish out of water, trying desperately to breathe for air instead. She couldn't look at him right now, because if she did, she knew she would burst out into a huge blush as well. _Not now Kaitou, please realize I'm putting up a show and I'm not really confessing to you._

"I see … I didn't know … you already had someone you liked. I guess I'll go … then …" Hagiya took one last look at Akira, with tears welled up in his eyes, and ran away from sight.

Akira let out a huge breathe of relief, letting go of Kaitou's arm in the process.

"Wow, Akira, if I had known that this was the guy you liked, I would have never told Hagiya to meet up with us!" said Risa with widened eyes.

"N-no, you got it all wrong!" exclaimed Akira real fast. She turned towards Kaitou, who's head, and even ears, were completely red. "I'm so sorry I used you Kaitou, but I only said that so I could get rid of him. That guy has always been after me and trying to get me to go out with him. He kept ignoring my warnings and rejections, he wouldn't give up! I figured if I told him I liked someone else, he'd finally give up!"

Kaitou finally looked at her, his lips were slightly trembling. "Eh?" he said.

"Sorry, it was just a joke!"

"J-joke?" he repeated.

Akira nodded her head, wanting to hit herself for saying something so stupid and confusing to Kaitou.

Kaitou sad back down in his seat. "Joke … just a joke," he repeated to himself. The blush was slowly disappearing and he looked up to her with a crooked smile. "Ha-ha. I knew that!" He didn't look happy one bit.

Akira hung her head down in shame. "I am really sorry, Kaitou," she apologized once more.

"It's okay, it got rid of him at least, didn't it?"

"Wait, if Hagiya isn't the guy you like, nor this guy – then who's the guy you like?" asked Risa with a thoughtful look on her face.

Akira bit on her lip. "Shut up," was all she said. "Let's just finish our food."

After that, everyone ate in silence, with Yasuhiko sometimes engaging into a conversation with Risa. Kaitou was completely silent though, and she couldn't blame him. She faked a confession and basically used him, she felt so bad for having done that. However, it was the only way she could see Hagiya leaving them, she was sure if she didn't proclaim her love for someone else that he would have tagged along and ruined her meeting with Kaitou. Akira hoped that he would forgive her soon, because they only had one day together.

Once they were finished, Akira asked the gang where they wanted to head next.

"Why don't you decide?" asked Risa.

Akira opened the map and started to look at some of the things they could do. It was then that she noticed the butterfly icon on the cartoonish map. She looked up and smiled.

"Follow me!"

She hadn't said a word what they were going to do, so they kept on following Akira as she navigated the large theme park. Kaitou still hadn't said anything, and it was really getting on her nerves. It made her feel worse by the second, it really was all her fault. She hoped that by visiting this ride it would calm his nerves or something.

Akira looked up at the big green cage, which was basically a big net. "We're here," she said with a smile.

"Oh! The butterfly cage! These things are so cool to walk through!"

They all entered the first room, where they had to wait until the last group had left. The theme park guy then finally opened the door and they could enter the magical world of butterflies. There were plenty of plants and trees around, as well as a little pond. The most important thing though; the butterflies. They were everywhere. Flying around, sitting on leaves, sitting in flowers, even sitting on some people after a while – they were simply gorgeous with their beautiful colours.

Akira walked further, following a big blue butterfly that landed on a purple flower. It was huge, about the size of her hand, she really wanted to touch it, but touching the butterflies was forbidden, unless they landed on you themselves.

"Wow, that one is huge," said Kaitou behind her.

She turned her face a little to see him walk over towards her. She smiled; finally he had said something. "Isn't it pretty?" she asked as she stared at the blue butterfly, opening its wings to spread them out.

Kaitou simply nodded with a small smile. The blue butterfly then flew away, but decided to land on Kaitou's head. Akira chuckled and grinned at him.

"Cool!" said Kaitou happily. "Look guys, I made a new friend!" He turned towards Risa and Yasuhiko, who looked jealous that he managed to get a butterfly to come to him.

"I reeeaaally want to touch it," said Akira with a sigh.

Kaitou carefully lowered himself so that Akira's face was parallel with the butterfly. "Go ahead," he said with a big grin.

Akira knew she shouldn't, but she extended her hand anyway. She pointed her index finger to the butterfly, in the hopes it would simply sit on her finger. She stepped a bit closer to Kaitou, ignoring the fact that his face was now actually at the same level as her breasts. She softly nudged the butterfly on its wing. It flapped its wings a bit, but didn't move. She did it again, and this time it finally hopped on her finger. Akira almost squealed out in delight.

"Look, look!" she said as she slowly removed her finger away from Kaitou's head.

Kaitou stood up straight again and stared at the butterfly that was on her finger. It was so cool; it was really sitting on her finger, not flying away at all. Risa walked up to them and admired the blue butterfly from up close. It was almost like her temporary pet. Risa was about to poke her finger on the butterfly, when it finally flew away.

"Aww, it flew away," said Akira sadly as she traced the butterfly with her eyes.

A tap on her shoulder made her turn around. In front of her was Kaitou, but this time, he was covered in a bunch of butterflies! He had his arms stretched out a bit, as they were perched on top of his sleeves, as well as his head. He was like a beacon for butterflies or something, because they didn't seem to mind that they were sitting on him.

"Wait, stay like that," she said quickly and pulled out her phone. She pointed it towards Kaitou, ready to take a picture. "Smile!" she said, and he gave her a big adorable smile. She snapped the picture, satisfied that she had one.

"You are such a butterfly magnet," said Yasuhiko dryly. He then waved his hands around Kaitou, to scare the butterflies away. They finally all left Kaitou.

"Hey, that was mean," said Akira and glared at him.

"Let's just keep on moving, other people want to come in as well," he said, pointing at the room they came through, it was indeed piling up with other people.

They started to move through the green cage, and walked in a big circle that returned them back to the beginning. They exited the butterfly house, and Akira was sad to leave the butterflies, they were really cool.

"Where to next?" asked Risa.

"I dunno, let's just keep on walking till we find something cool."

They started to walk, with Kaitou being next to Akira once again. She realized she was still holding her phone, and Kaitou's picture was on it still. She tugged on Kaitou's sleeve to get his attention and shoved the phone in his face.

"Aren't you looking pretty?" she said with a smile.

"Haha, that looks so cool. You'll have to send that picture to me later."

Akira stared at the boy next to her, his smile filling her up with happiness. It seemed her had forgiven her from the incident from before. She sighed in relief; that was a good thing.

"Want to take a picture together?" he suddenly asked.

"Oh, yes! I'm glad you told me! I would have totally forgotten about something like that."

Akira took the cellphone out of his hands, then turned it towards them. They stopped to smile at the camera, and Akira was feeling bold, so she placed her arm around his neck and pulled his face against her, so that their cheeks were bumping against each other. She made a quick peace sign and took the picture. Akira retrieved her arm and stepped away from him again, feeling quite satisfied she managed to casually touch him like that. She looked at the end result of the picture, and noticed that Kaitou had a shocked look on his face, as well as a luminescent blush.

"Hey, let me see," said Kaitou softly as he reached for the phone.

Akira hoisted the cellphone out of his reach. "Nu-uh, it's mine now!" she said with a giggle and slid the phone into her pocket.

Kaitou stared at her with big pouty lips, and it took every ounce in her body to prevent herself from stepping over to him and pinch his cheek. That boy was too adorable for his own good.

"Look Akira, it's a waterslide!" Risa pointed to the big waterslide on their left. It had big yellow boats sliding down tubes, with water splashing everywhere.

Akira shook her head. "Thanks, but I'll pass."

"Aww, what about you Kaitou?"

Kaitou shook his head as well. "I don't like rides like that."

Risa stared hopefully at Yasuhiko; she really wanted to go. The black haired boy simply shrugged his shoulders and started to walk over to the entrance of the waterslide.

"We'll be back soon!" she said happily and disappeared to the waterslide as well.

"Hey, it's a haunted house," remarked Kaitou, as he stood staring to the right.

Akira turned as well and stared at the big haunted house in front of her. It had two floors, with creepy looking windows and monsters were crawling up the walls. A big fake hand kept appearing out of one of the windows, as if it was trying to grab you. Akira held both her arms close to her body; it looked way too scary to go inside.

"Too scared?" asked Kaitou with a chuckle.

"Scared? Me? Never!" she lied and made her way over to the entrance. "I'll show you how brave I can be!"

Kaitou merely laughed at her as they both entered the haunted house. It was very dark, with only glow in the dark stuff giving off a faint light in the scary hallways. Akira walked in front, but quickly regretted that choice as she walked into something that felt very sticky.

"Ugh, what is this!" she yelled out and tried to get it off of her.

"Probably fake spider webs, do you want me to walk in front?" asked Kaitou.

Akira said nothing, but Kaitou decided that her silence meant 'yes', so he walked in front of her. She took small steps, afraid she was going to trip on something, or have something touch her face again. The creepy and eerie music playing in the background really didn't help. It was really dark, and she could barely see Kaitou walk in front of her. Soon she couldn't even see him at all. Akira started to panic a bit and walked faster, to catch up. Something slimy touched her neck and Akira screamed out loud.

"S-something just touched me!" She then bumped into Kaitou, who had apparently stopped walking when she started to scream.

"Okay, I lied, I'm scared shitless of these haunted houses," she said in a whimper and placed her hands on Kaitou's shoulders. "Please don't leave me alone."

"Relax, it's just people trying to scare us," he said with a laugh.

"Well, it's _working_," she bit back.

As they continued to walk, with Akira's hands firmly gripping Kaitou's shoulders, something touched her neck again. She screamed bloody murder.

"Something really just touched me!" she said in panic.

"Akira, you're kind of hurting me …"

Akira noticed that she was digging her fingers into his skin and she promptly let go. "S-sorry," she said as she blushed a bit.

"Why don't you walk next to me instead."

"Alright," she said and hesitantly removed herself from his back and walked on his right instead.

All of the sudden, a skeleton popped up right in front of their eyes, making a loud shrilly noise as it appeared. Akira screamed again and quickly attached herself onto Kaitou's arm. Kaitou had to drag her away to make her sop screaming.

"Wow, I didn't know you could be such a girl," said Kaitou as he tried to hide his laughter.

Akira pulled herself away from him and punched him on the arm. "Take that back, I'm not a girly girl!"

She felt something light touch her face, it was a spider web! Akira screamed hard and loud again. "Get it off! Get it off!"

Kaitou stopped to peel the spider webs away from her face. "There, I think it's all off, I can't really tell, it's really dark in here."

"Thanks," she whispered as she felt his fingers leave her cheek. Another loud sudden noise made her cling onto Kaitou's arm again. "I lied, I'm a girly girl! Get me out of here!"

Her heart was beating so fast because she was really scared. Or because she was shamelessly hanging onto Kaitou, pressing her whole body against him. Either way, it was beating fast. She took babysteps as Kaitou guided her through the dark room, not seeming to mind that she was permanently glued to his arm. They managed to avoid obstacles such as skeletons appearing out of nowhere, but it still managed to scare the shit out of Akira.

All of the sudden a man appeared in front of them, holding a chainsaw that was going so fast, sparks were flying off of it. It made a horrible noise that made her skin crawl. Akira's skin turned pale and she dug her face into Kaitou's chest, screaming at the top of her lunges. She felt Kaitou put a hand on the back of her head and she was whisked away, the horrible sound of the chainsaw becoming fainter by the second. Soon, she was out in the open air with bright daylight shining on top of her.

She cracked an eye open and looked at the bright blue sky. Then she realized both her arms were folded around Kaitou's neck and her face was squashed into his chest. Akira quickly pushed herself away from him. "I'm sorry!" she apologized.

Kaitou scratched the back of his head, his cheeks tinted pink. "It's alright. Man, that chainsaw guy was really scary, wasn't he? Even I was scared haha."

Scary? He was downright terrifying to the core! Akira thought she was going to have a heart attack if it wasn't for Kaitou who took her away.

"I can't believe you were so scared though," he said with a smirk. "BlackRose, who is secretly a really scared little girl."

"Shut up …" she said halfheartedly. "I'm never doing that again. _Ever_."

"Well, if you do, just hang onto me and I'll protect you," he said with an honest smile this time.

Akira's heart started to calm down as she looked into his baby blue eyes. She smiled back at him; yeah, he could protect her. He was always there for her, and it wasn't just on the computer either.

"I'm still never going back again!"

"There you are! We were looking for you, we even rode the slide twice!" said Risa from behind. She was drenched in water, but apparently had a lot of fun. Yasuhiko was seen standing next to her, drying off his glasses.

"Sorry, we went inside the haunted house," said Akira with a sigh.

"Let's avoid water rides for now, okay?" said Yasuhiko, still drying his glasses. Risa merely laughed it off.

Akira then pointed at the ferris wheel in the distance, having a big smile on her face. The next few hours, Akira enjoyed a trip on the ferris wheel, sitting closely to Kaitou as they both stared down below at the tiny houses. After that they decided to all play in a game hall and played airhockey against each other. Surprisingly, it seemed Yasuhiko was really good at this, and continued to beat them in the most spectacular ways. Akira noticed that Risa kept dragging Yasuhiko on rides with her, she didn't know whether she did this because she wanted Akira to have some alone time with Kaitou, or because she really liked Yasuhiko. Either way, she didn't mind, spending some time alone with Kaitou was great.

They had a bunch of random conversations, some about The World, some about the theme park itself, and some about their family. When Akira mentioned the 'gay incident' again to Kaitou, he turned all flustered and changed the subject. It was nice to have Kaitou by her side like this; it seemed most of her nerves had finally abandoned her and she was now enjoying her time with Kaitou. They were partners after all. That didn't stop her from staring into his eyes whenever he was concentrated on something else. She wasn't very discreet about it either, as sometimes he would catch her staring at him, and he'd get all embarrassed and stutter his words. Was it mean to take some enjoyment in his embarrassment? Akira simply smiled as she continued to look at him whenever she could.

Next up was an underground aquarium. They had a bunch of sea animals for them to look at. There was even a big tank full of sharks, stingrays, and a bunch of other colourful fish. It was a sight to behold; everything was so sparkly and blue, it was pretty. Even though the sharks looked pretty ugly. After the aquarium trip they decided to play some minigames, such as throwing a ball against a bunch of bottles in the hopes that you could knock them all off.

Akira, with her tennis abilities, was pretty good at it. She managed to twin three times in a row, which earned her a few prizes such as a stuffed animal, a keychain and a fortune cookie. Though she threw the fortune cookie away, not interested in it. She gave the stuffed animal to Risa, she knew she loved those, and decided to keep the keychain herself. It was just a little baseball, nothing special.

When they were getting tired of walking around, they decided to sit somewhere again and eat something. This time they all ordered a pizza together, so each could have a slice.

"Hey Akira, can you send that picture that you took of us to me?" asked Kaitou all of the sudden and took a bite out of his pizza

Akira pulled out her phone and opened the picture of her hanging onto an embarrassed Kaitou, giving a peace sign. "Sure, I'm guessing you want the butterfly picture as well?"

"Of course."

Akira pressed a few buttons, and the pictures were on their way. Kaitou's cellphone beeped twice, indicating that he had received them. When he opened the pictures, his head turned scarlet, probably because he looked so embarrassed in the picture that they took together, and Akira burst out into laughing.

"Don't worry Kaitou, I won't show it to anyone else haha," she said while her laughter died down.

He merely gave her a pout and closed his phone.

"What's that?" said Yasuhiko. "I want to see it now!"

"Eat you pizza," threatened Kaitou.

Everyone laughed and had a good time after that. It was nearing 5 PM and Akira knew she had to call her dad to pick them up, but instead she sent him a text message, reminding him to pick them up at 6 PM instead. She didn't want this day at the theme park to end just yet. Everyone got up from the table to continue their adventure through the park. Kaitou walked ahead with Yasuhiko, chatting away.

"Oh hey," she said as she noticed that Kaitou's phone was still on the table. She took it in her hands, with the intention of giving it back to him, but then decided to she wanted to peek inside his phone. She flipped it open and was about to read through his messages when one thing in particular jumped out at her.

There was a picture of her on his background.

Akira's eyes widened at this discovery; it was the same picture she had sent him a few days ago. Why was this his wallpaper on his phone? Did he do this as a joke? No, he wouldn't pull off a joke like that, then why was her picture on his background? Akira looked at Kaitou who was walking ahead of her, talking to his friend. Maybe Yasuhiko placed it as his wallpaper, to mess around or something.

Or maybe Kaitou really did use her picture as a wallpaper because he liked seeing her. Just thinking about that gave her goose bumps. Akira couldn't stop staring at her own picture, why oh why did he have her picture on his cellphone like that? Maybe he …

Kaitou suddenly felt around in his pockets with his hands, realizing his cellphone was missing. Akira quickly slapped the phone closed and pretended she never opened it. The boy turned around and he stared at her with those amazing blue eyes. He sighed in relief when he saw her holding his cellphone.

"I thought I lost it," he said and took the phone from her hands.

Good, he hadn't realized that she opened his phone. "It was on the table, you forgot to pick it up again."

"Thanks," he said with a smile.

No, it couldn't be a joke. Kaitou simply wouldn't do something like that. Then the only option it could be, was that he willingly made her his background because he liked looking at her.

The rest of the day, Akira couldn't push the thought out of her head that Kaitou had her assigned as his wallpaper. Every time their eyes would meet, Akira's thoughts went back to the picture and she quickly adverted her gaze, trying to suppress a major blush. As time passed by, it started getting darker and darker, so they decided to attend a firework show that was starting soon.

It was dark, and getting kind of chilly, Akira stood out on a grass field, having found a good spot to see the fireworks. She sat down on the grass as well as everyone else. For some reason, no matter where they'd be sitting, Kaitou was always next to her, while Yasuhiko was always next to Risa. She didn't mind though.

"We can see the whole theme park from here!" she said excitedly.

"We would have had a better view in the ferris wheel," mentioned Risa.

"But that thing moves around, so it's better over here."

In the distance they could hear a crowd gathering, probably wanting to see the fireworks as well. A slight breeze passed them by and Akira shivered, pulling her pink vest closer to her body. She sneaked a peek at Kaitou, he was staring at the night sky. He was sitting on the grass with one knee up, his right hand leaning on his knee, while his other hand was resting in the grass. Akira stared at his hand and again couldn't stop thinking about his wallpaper.

Maybe, he actually liked her. It would make sense if he did. The blushing, the stuttering, it wasn't just because they were meeting for the first time, was it? Akira shifted a tiny bit closer to Kaitou, her eyes strained on his left hand. If he did like her, then he wouldn't mind this, right? She shifted closer to him again, while feeling her heart beat speed up and her cheeks starting to burn. Well, she was about to find out. Akira slowly raised her right hand from the grass and hovered it towards Kaitou's hand. Yup, she was definitely bold.

A firework burst into the sky, delivering an ear shattering bang as it dissolved into a million pieces of glowing light.

Kaitou whipped his head around to face Akira, who was pretending to be dumb and stared at the sky. In the corner of her eyes she could see Kaitou stare down at his hand, his gaze lingered on it for about three seconds before he looked up at her again. Akira still didn't budge and looked at the second firework explode in the air. Kaitou shuffled uneasy on his spot, but decided to look up at the sky as well.

Kaitou didn't mind.

Akira's fingers were slightly wrapped around his hand, leaving them to rest on top of it. Maybe it was a bold and stupid thing to do, but when she started thinking about it, she couldn't help herself from reaching out to his hand. It was his stupid fault for having her as his wallpaper on his phone! He started it! Akira finally looked down, tearing her eyes away from the sky and adverted her gaze towards their hands instead. Just at that moment, Kaitou's fingers curled up so that he was clenching her hand as well, holding her firmly, yet gently, in his hand. Akira knew she was blushing like mad right now, and thanked the gods that it was dark and it was hard to see.

Another firework went off, and Akira used this opportunity to return his behavior by strengthening her grip on his hand as well, now fully intertwining her fingers with his. It was making her feel very confusing emotions, most of them only aiding in giving her goose bumps and pump blood to her head – but she liked it. Maybe that was an understatement; she was enjoying this like no tomorrow. She was holding Kite's hand! The same Kite she spent so many hours with saving The World. Now she was here, next to him, having her fingers intertwined with his. It had a calming effect on her, yet it also sent chills down her spine. However, it was a nice feeling, and Akira simply sat next to him holding his hand while they watched the fireworks in silence.

Yeah, maybe he did like her.

Akira turned her head to face Kaitou, finally feeling a bit more brave and calm. Another firework exploded in the air, which gave her enough light to see his face more clearly. She didn't know for sure, as the fireworks were giving off a blue light, but his face looked strangely pink. Kaitou noticed he was being stared at, and finally tilted his head towards her as well. Akira smiled broadly at him, and when another firework went off, she could see Kaitou's timid expression, giving her a small smile as well. Her heart skipped a few beats, but she paid no attention to it. Both of them broke their gaze and stared at the night sky again.

The fireworks continued to explode in the air, until there were no more left to fire off. Yasuhiko and Risa were actively engaged in a fireworks conversation, while Akira and Kaitou silently sat beside each other, their hands still intertwined. She knew it was time to let go, the fireworks were over, and she couldn't hold on to him forever. It's not like she wanted to; holding Kaitou's hand was a special moment that she didn't want to break. A sudden loud ringtone tore her away from such thoughts as she finally let go of Kaitou's hand in shock. Her phone was ringing. Akira quickly picked it up, feeling sad her hand finally left Kaitou's.

"Hello?"

"Where are you guys? I'm waiting for you at the exit." It was her dad's voice, he came to pick them up.

"Yeah, we're coming, give us a few minutes. Bye." She hung up on her dad and quickly faces away from Kaitou, and faced Risa instead. "Dad's here, we have to go."

"Alright, let's head towards the exit then," said Risa as she got up.

Akira got up as well, with Kaitou not far behind her. They all started to walk towards the exit, and yet again, Kaitou was walking next to Akira. He hadn't said a word of them holding hands, and neither had she. Both of them silently walked next to each other, having nothing to say. Akira looked at his hand a few times, seeing it dangle beside him so innocently. She wanted to hold hands with him again, but she knew it would only look awkward this time, so she decided against it.

The gang finally exited the theme park and met up with Akira's dad, who drove them back home. Only about four more hours left until Kaitou had to leave again. Such a thought made Akira feel really depressed, but she shook it off and thought of other things she could do with him.

However, it was Risa who suggested something. "Let's play Twister guys! In teams!" she dove underneath Akira's bed, where she knew she stored her Twister set, and took it out.

"Me and Yasuhiko, against Akira and Kaitou, how does that sound like?" She gave a big wink towards Akira when the boys weren't looking, and yet again, Akira didn't know if she was doing her a favour, or if she just really liked Yasuhiko that much.

"Sure, I'm game," said Akira.

Kaitou scratched his head, unsure of what to say. "I'm not really good at Twister," he admitted.

"That's alright, I'm awesome at it," replied Akira with an arrogant smile.

Risa set up the game, folding out the big mat with coloured dots on it, and sat on the bed, waiting to spin the board. "Well, let's make you go first. We'll keep count of how many rounds you can take before you both fall."

Yasuhiko sat on the bed as well, folding his arms and adjusted his glasses. "This I gotta see."

"Alright, first turn is … Left foot on red!" said Risa.

Thus, the game had begun. Akira was slender and athletic, so she had no problems bending over backwards to get to a certain spot. The problem however, was with Kaitou. He felt very awkward having to bend himself in a rather suggestive position, and he wasn't that great at reaching certain spots. Nevertheless, they passed about twenty rounds before it became a bit … difficult.

"Left hand on blue!"

"Ugh, where's blue?" asked Akira frustrated, not being able to see where she could place her hand.

When she spotted the blue dot, she reached her left hand towards it, but at the same time, Kaitou wanted that spot as well, so their hands bumped against each other. Akira quickly pulled it back,. Being reminded of earlier during the fireworks, and managed to hide her blush as she was facing down. She chose a different blue spot.

It was then that she noticed she was in a very compromising position with Kaitou. His body was bent over hers, and she was underneath him. She could feel his shirt dangling above her back, and his leg was wrapped around hers. It was almost as if Kaitou had pushed her to the ground and was about to rape her from behind or something. Of course, it wasn't really like that, but it sure did look like it.

"Sorry guys, but this is too hilarious to not take a picture of it." Yasuhiko whipped out his phone and quickly took a picture of the two in the awkward position.

"Hey! No pictures!" yelled Akira angrily. "Next turn!"

"Right hand on yellow!"

As they continued to get more and more turns, they got more and more tangled with each other. It was impossible to avoid physical touching, and Akira was sure that not only had their arms and legs touched countless of times, she was sure she had accidentally grazed against his crotch. Why was she so sure? Well, Kaitou let out a strangled high pitched scream and fell back, finally losing the game. Well, the game would be over once Akira fell as well, but unfortunately, Kaitou made her lose her balance as well, and she fell down in a tangled mess with Kaitou.

"Ow, that hurt Kaitou," complained Akira as she squeezed her eyes shot, feeling pain in her legs and elbow.

"S-sorry," he said timidly.

Kaitou picked himself up and offered Akira a hand, which she gladly took. The feeling of his hand holding hers made her cheeks get flushed once more; remembering when they had held hands before. He pulled her up and let go of her hand, adverting his gaze towards the ground.

"Okay guys, you made it up to 28 turns. It's our turn now, Yasuhiko."

"Oh joy," he said sarcastically.

Akira and Kaitou sat on her bed, it was their turn to sit and watch. Akira started spinning the board and yelled out the orders, wanting to get back at Risa for putting her in awkward situations with Kaitou. As Risa and Yasuhiko played the game by bending over backwards, Akira noticed that Yasuhiko's cellphone was still on the bed. She picked it up and started to flip through the pictures he had taken during Akira and Kaitou's turn.

"Hey, that's my phone," complained Yasuhiko.

"Yeah well, there is a picture of me on it, so there. Right foot on red."

Akira shuffled through his random pictures of himself until she found one with Kaitou bending over her, with Akira underneath him. She brought her hand up to her mouth; it was pretty hilarious from this side. She nudged Kaitou in his side and showed him the picture. He turned a bit red, but chuckled nonetheless.

Time went on as the other team passed the twenty turn mark, both of them having tangled themselves up so badly that it was almost impossible to move. Akira was sure they were going to lose soon, and she was right. After one more turn Yasuhiko slipped out and fell on top of Risa. Poor Risa. It seemed they were having fun though as they were all laughing together.

"You had 21 turns, that means, me and Kaitou win! Haha!"

Yasuhiko looked on his watch as he stood up. "It's 8 PM, what should we do for the next two hours? And please don't make me do Twister again …"

"Well, we can watch a movie. I have a few DVDs downstairs."

They all migrated to downstairs, no one was in the living room as her parents had gone out for the moment, and her brothers were sleeping as well. Akira popped in a random DVD and asked her guests if they wanted something to drink. The three of them sat on the big couch as Akira prepared some drinks. When she came back, she placed the drinks on the table and squeezed herself between Risa and Kaitou. After all; they'd been sitting like this all day long, why change it now?

"What movie did you put on?" asked Kaitou.

"I don't know, I haven't seen it before," she replied while shrugging her shoulders.

The television finally started to show the actual movie after all the previews they were forced to sit through. It was a boring movie, about some two weirdos who managed to hate everything in the world, which made the world disappear into nothingness. It was a weird and uninteresting movie, so Akira felt her consciousness slowly slip away from her. It wasn't really her fault; she didn't get much sleep last night, as she was anxious about the meeting, and thus felt very tired during the day. Akira gave up on trying to keep her eyes open and let herself fall asleep. She felt her muscles relax and she fell against Kaitou's shoulder. She didn't remember what happened anymore after that.

Akira woke up to something shaking her softly. "Akira, the movie is over, we have to go now," whispered Kaitou's voice in her ear.

Akira cracked her eyes open and realized she had been resting on Kaitou's lap all this time. She quickly pulled back and sat up straight, not believing the fact that she had fallen asleep on his lap.

"So sorry," she mumbled apologetic.

"It's okay, it was a pretty boring movie haha."

"What time is it?"

"It's 9:30 PM, we need to go now."

"Where's Risa and Yasuhiko?" she asked when she noticed they were alone.

"They already went outside to get the bikes."

"Oh, well then let's go."

They got up from the couch and went outside in the cold night. Akira felt sleepy but also depressed. She was dropping off Kaitou right now, and her last moments with him were spent on his lap? How lame. Kaitou hopped on her bike and turned towards her with a smile.

Akira lazily got on the bike and saw Risa and Yasuhiko took off already. Kaitou started pedaling and Akira wrapped her hands around his skinny waist and leaned her face against his back. Kaitou tensed up yet again, but relaxed soon after. It wasn't even a simple innocent grab anymore, she was really holding on to him right now. She didn't care what he thought; she was sad that he had to leave and this was the last time she'd be able to hold him like that. Why did he have to leave? Why did he live so far away from her? Why was she feeling as if a part of her was dying on the inside? Akira sniffed against his back, but refused to cry.

It didn't take long for them to arrive at the train station and Akira was sorely disappointed when she had to remove her arms from Kaitou's waist. Akira hopped off from the bike and Kaitou stored it in the rack, giving the key back to her. They all walked towards the platform in silence, probably because no one knew what to say, but also because Akira felt too depressed to say anything.

Akira sat down on a bench with Kaitou sitting next to her. They didn't say a word. What was there left to say when you were saying goodbye? She clenched her hands into fists; trying to look for words to say to Kaitou, before he would leave.

"I had fun today," said Kaitou softly.

Akira gave him a sad smile, but didn't say anything.

"The 10 o' clock train has arrived."

Akira whirled her head around to look at the tracks, and she saw the light from the train coming closer to her. All of them got up from the bench and started to walk closer to the train, which had now come to a complete halt. The shiny metal doors opened and Yasuhiko was the first one to hop on.

"Goodbye Akira, and Risa," he said as he bent his head down and left the door. Risa waved at him as well as to Kaitou then left the platform to give some privacy to the both of them.

Kaitou stood in front of Akira, at a loss of words. She had to say something – anything! He was about to leave and she couldn't even manage to tell him that she really enjoyed his stay with her today. How much it meant to her that he was there. She didn't want him to leave … she wanted to see him again.

If she had to something, now was the time. Akira flung her arms around his neck and leaned into his chest. Tears started to well up in her eyes, but she was refusing to let them go. Not until he would be gone would she cry herself dry. Kaitou's arms closed around her waist and he leaned his head down on her shoulder. Akira didn't want to let go of him – that would mean the end of their meeting. Kaitou was the first one to let go though.

"Oh, I almost forgot …" he pulled something out of his pocket. Then he grabbed her hands and placed something inside of it.

"It's a present, for your birthday."

Akira looked up into his blue eyes, she was sure she was about to start a big cry fest. The whistle was heard in the distance, he had to go now.

"Well, this is goodbye then," he said as he took a step backwards towards the train.

"Yeah … goodbye, Kaitou. I will really miss you," she said with a sniff.

Another whistle went off, the final warning. It then happened in a blink of an eye; Kaitou lunged forward and grabbed her shoulders to pull her closer to him. He leaned his face down to hers and kissed her on the lips. Before she could even register it, he had pulled himself back and jumped onto the train.

"Bye!" he said before the door finally closed and the train started to roll away.

The wind blew by her as Akira stood there on the platform, dumbfounded, and with a major red head. The train disappeared out of her view.

He … he kissed her!

On the lips!

_He kissed her!_

**On the lips!**

For real!


	5. The Message

**Meet Me**

**A/N: **Last chapter was very long, so this one might seem short in comparison.

**Chapter 5 – **_**The Message  


* * *

**_

Kaitou opened his bedroom door, locked it behind him, and let himself fall down onto his bed. He was exhausted and tired. It was about 12:30 in the middle of the night and he had finally returned home after his long train ride. He placed his chin up on his pillow and took out his cellphone. He flipped it open and opened the picture of him and Akira. The boy stared at it with blank eyes. He couldn't even believe it himself, he had really done it now. What was he thinking? The event replayed in his head.

"_Yeah … goodbye, Kaitou. I will really miss you," said Akira, her eyes filled with sadness._

_His emotions got the better of him when he heard that final whistle. Something had to be done before he wouldn't see her anymore. Thus, the one thing that popped up in his head, was to pull her close to him and plant his lips on her own. He quickly pulled himself back and hopped onto the train. Just before the door was closing, he said his final goodbye._

"_Bye!"_

_The door closed and he looked through the dirty window to see Akira's dumbfounded expression. The train finally left the station and Akira was soon out of sight._

Kaitou's face was red and his heart was pounding really hard in his chest. He kissed Akira. He wasn't planning on kissing her – it just happened. In fact, a lot of things happened today that he wasn't planning on doing. Not only did he erased his recorded message on her phone strap to replace it with a more embarrassing message, that was done in the spur of the moment – he had kissed Akira! Kaitou buried his head into his pillow; he felt so embarrassed, ashamed, and extremely happy. He really didn't plan on kissing her though … Then again, he really hadn't planned on realizing he had wanted to.

When Akira had shouted out to that one guy that she liked him at the theme park, something inside of him just clicked. It was something that shocked him to the center of his heart, and made him realize something. He was overjoyed to hear her say that, hence why his face couldn't stop blushing and he couldn't even utter a word to her. It was then that he realized he liked Akira. In fact, he probably liked her for a really long time, but just never found the time to figure out that he had the hots for his best female friend. Kaitou was overjoyed, and wanted to find the words to reincorporate her feelings.

Then when she heard him say it was all a joke, his world crashed down. He had _just_ realized he was simply smitten with Akira, and then had her say that she didn't like him, it was just a joke. Even though she said that, Akira continued to do things around him that made him extremely happy. Maybe she was only joking about joking?

For one, when he was riding her bike she had decided to hold onto him and press her face against his back. Luckily she couldn't see his face – nor Yasuhiko – because it was as red as a crab. He was secretly very happy that her face was pressing against his back, and to have her small hands hold onto him. The whole ride he had entered some sort of dream state, as he barely registered that they had finally arrived at her house.

Then at her home, her guinea pig, or prairie dog or whatever, peed on his shirt and she immediately took him to the bathroom to wash it off. She didn't laugh at him, instead she made a joke to make him feel better. Standing in front of her like that, looking down on her made him feel all fuzzy inside. Then he had to go and be all creepy and sniff her hair. Such lovely hair she had, and such lovely shampoo she used.

While at the haunted house, she clung onto him like crazy. Kaitou knew it was a good idea to drag her inside, as he knew she'd get scared and would eventually hold onto him – just like during the bike ride. It was a sneaky and manipulative thing to do, but even though he felt guilty for tempting her to go in, he was yet again extremely happy at the results. She was all over him in the haunted house, first digging her nails into his shoulders, then hanging onto his arm as if her life depended on it. All of that touching made Kaitou extremely aware of himself, and he realized he was beginning to get rather excited. Good thing that chainsaw guy appeared out of nowhere and scared the hell out of him – otherwise he could never face himself ever again.

However, most importantly, the fireworks incident. He was just minding his own business, sitting next to Akira, and waiting for the show to start. When the first firework exploded in the air, he felt something grab his hand. It was Akira, though she was staring at the sky when she did it. Her hand was simply resting on his own. It wasn't a mistake, as she didn't pull back – then why did she do it? She wouldn't do this if she didn't want to, right? Feeling brave enough that she wouldn't mind, he simply clasped his hands around her fingers in return. His face was furiously red, but luckily it was dark, and luckily she couldn't feel him shake with nerves. Akira's fingers then went from resting on his hand to intertwining her fingers with his. He was sure he was about to explode from a nosebleed as too much blood was rushing to his head.

It was really nice though, holding the hand of the girl he liked. Though why would she do it if it wasn't for the fact that she liked him as well? When he noticed her staring at him, he turned to look at her. She gave him a warm smile, acknowledging she was indeed holding his hand and was happy about it. All Kaitou could do was melt in a puddle and shyly smile back at her. They were holding hands, and she wanted to.

Then again, she never mentioned a word about that incident afterwards.

Back at her home, her friend decided it was a great idea to play Twister. Kaitou knew what would become of Twister; awkward touching in places they shouldn't, so he was hesitant at first. However, Akira wanted to play, so he went along. At first he managed to be able to play without touching Akira, but that quickly failed as arms and legs touched, then his chest, then his face, then her face and her chest – he didn't do it on purpose though – and finally, she managed to brush against his penis while reaching for a dot. It startled him so much that he basically yelped out loud and fell down. It was extremely embarrassing, but he was trying to ignore the fact she accidentally touched him there.

After that they watched a movie, and Akira had fallen asleep pretty fast, leaning against his shoulder. He didn't mind, and Yasuhiko and Risa didn't seem to notice either. However, Akira lost her balance and soon slipped away from his shoulder and rested her head on his lap instead. Now that Akira was asleep, he didn't feel that embarrassed about it, but enjoyed having her this close to him. He even toyed around with her hair a couple of times during the movie, though she would never know about that. It was during this time that Kaitou decided to change the message that was on the phone strap. He decided to delete the original message on the pone strap and record a new one. He did it because ... well … he knew he wouldn't be able to admit it to her himself, he was too embarrassed to do it. Then it was finally time to leave.

So there he was, with only a few more minutes until he finally went home.

It was really a spur of the moment kind of thing. He would never even dream of kissing Akira – yet there he was, his lips on hers. He smiled at the memory, then groaned out loud and rolled his eyes. He couldn't decide whether to be happy or to be extremely disappointed in himself. Alright, so he kissed her. Now what? He still had to face her one way or the other. Akira probably had some questions in store for him, and it terrified him to know that. Yet he couldn't stop thinking about the positive reaction he might get. What if she liked him too? Well it was fairly obvious that she clearly liked him, gathered from all her actions today, but did she like the kiss?

Then again, hell if he knew that Akira liked him back. He only recently realized that he liked her. Kaitou touched his lips with his index finger and thought back about the kiss again. Feelings coursed through his body as he thought of the memory. Mostly good ones, though. Maybe 'like' wasn't the right word for describing his apparent fondness of Akira. They had fought endless battles together, and she was always there for him, helping him, being his general pillar of support. Then he went all giddy over her picture, and even set it as his wallpaper on his phone. Then during the meeting, he realized he really liked her and every time she touched him, it send sparks through his body. Of course, there was also the spontaneous kiss, he couldn't forget that.

No, like wasn't the right word for this. It was too superficial to what he really felt for Akira. He never really paid attention to it, but he really did have deep and strong feelings for her. He always had, he just never really paid attention to them until now. Like definitely wasn't the right word here.

Kaitou loved Akira.

Yeah, that's right – he loved her. It was embarrassing, but completely true. Kaitou had no clue when he fell in love with her, or how it even happened, but the feeling was there. The feeling to want to be with her, to want to touch her, to always have him by his side as his respected partner. Kaitou's blue eyes stared at his window, wondering why he had never come to terms with these feelings before.

Maybe it was because he was too busy with The World. He was definitely worried about Akira, but he didn't have the time to reflect on his feelings for her – there were lives to be saved! Now, when everything was done and saved, he had the free time to collect his thoughts and emotions and interact with her without the impending doom of The World over their heads. Akira was a great woman, and he respected her greatly for all the things that she had done. Sure, she was two years older than her, but he really didn't care. Akira was his equal like no one else could ever be. She supported him throughout the entire time they knew each other, not once betraying her loyalty to him – and he wanted that to continue in the real world. To have her stand by his side, to hold his hand, and take on the real world.

"I am getting way over in my head," he murmured against the pillow.

So yeah, he just figured out he was in love with Akira, but that didn't solve his dilemma that he had forced a kiss on her and now had to face her. He couldn't very well spit out and say; 'I love you!' that would be way too embarrassing, as well as he was scared of her rejection. She had already said that her confession was a joke … _three times!_ Once in a mail, once during a phone call, and once today! That girl really confused him.

If she really didn't like him, she would have never held his hand and touched him in so many different ways that he could imagine. Surely, it was because she wanted to, right?

Kaitou sighed deeply and decided to try and go to sleep.

The next morning, Kaitou was too scared to check his mail, fearing a mail from Akira as she yelled at him for kissing her. No, he couldn't face her right now, his feelings were still all messed up and he was extremely scared of her reaction. He decided that he wouldn't check his mail until tonight, after he had visited Yasuhiko. He was the only friend he could count on right now. Kaitou hadn't said a word to Yasuhiko about the kiss while they were going back home, he kept it a secret from him. Though, today he wanted to tell him, so Kaitou went to visit Yasuhiko's apartment.

"Heya! Boy do I have something to tell you," said Yasuhiko excitedly as he opened the door to greet Kaitou.

Kaitou entered the apartment and followed Yasuhiko to his room. His friend went to sit on the computer and opened a mail, which he proudly presented to Kaitou.

"Check it out," he said with a smile.

Kaitou shrugged and looked over his shoulder, reading the mail. He was shocked to find out it came from the sender BlackRose.

_Hello Yasuhiko._

_This is Risa, from yesterday, remember? Anyways, I just wanted to say I had a lot of fun hanging out with you, and wanted to ask your phone number so that we could chat every once in a while. Oh, I'm using Akira's mail address, because I don't have one of my own, so I apologize for that._

Kaitou sighed; it was only her friend using her mail address. His friend turned to him with a broad smile. "She totally likes me."

"Ah, yeah, I gathered that from yesterday when you kept talking to each other."

"Well she's a really nice girl, she knows when to crack a joke, I had fun with her. I'm glad you invited me to come with you! By the way, why are you here at my place?"

"Oh ... hm …" Kaitou shuffled on his spot, staring at his feet.

"Kai, you're turning red again, stop that."

Kaitou turned around in a blink of an eye, hiding his face. "Stop saying that!"

"Well spit it out, what do you want."

The boy took a deep breath; he was going to tell Yasuhiko that he kissed Akira and wanted advice.

"Before I boarded the train yesterday … I … k-k-kissed her …"

"What!" said Yasuhiko outraged. "You never told me that! But wow, way to go, I didn't think you'd have the guts to do something like that."

"It was just in the spur of the moment," he mumbled softly.

"And what did she do then?"

"Nothing … I kissed her then hopped on the train before she could even say anything at all."

Yasuhiko punched Kaitou's arm. "What an awful thing to do, so you just left her standing there? Didn't even wait to see what her reaction was?"

Kaitou rubbed his arm and glared at Yasuhiko. "The train was leaving! I didn't have much time!"

"Did you at least send her a mail when you got home? You know, apologize for the stupid thing you did."

Kaitou remained silent.

"You didn't! She must be super mad at you right now, boy do I have zero sympathy for you – you brought it upon yourself. Now leave me alone while I talk to Risa." Yasuhiko then shoved Kaitou outside of his apartment, slamming the door closed.

The boy blinked a few times; did he really just get evicted from his friend's home? He grumbled something nasty under his breath, then went back home. Upon arrival, he sat in front of his blank computer screen. It was turned off, and he was still too scared to check his mail. If Yasuhiko was right; Akira would be really mad right now – which made him even more scared! Yet, he couldn't keep on ignoring his mail forever, he knew he had to explain himself at one point.

Kaitou turned on his computer and saw it boot up. For some reason, this was even scarier than fighting any of the bosses he had before, all because he was too chicken to face the consequences. The computer was finally on, showing his desktop. Kaitou slowly clicked on his mail and logged in. With a lump in his throat, he checked his inbox. There were three messages from BlackRose. He knew it, she was angry and mad and taking it out on him. Kaitou slumped back in his chair, too afraid to click on one of her messages, but he had to, he couldn't avoid it forever. He hovered his mouse on the first mail and clicked it, closing his eyes in anticipation.

When he opened them up, he noticed she had only written one sentence:

_Are you home yet?_

Kaitou checked the time of the message; it was sent at 12 AM yesterday. Apparently she had stayed up all this time to see if he had arrived. He didn't even have the guts to say he was safe and home. Kaitou was absolutely relieved he didn't see any vulgar words in there though, and proceeded to the next message.

_Please send me a message when you see this, we need to talk._

Sweat started dripping from his forehead as he read that last part. _We need to talk._ Oh god, he was surely going to get killed by her, or stomped to death, or go deaf from her cursing – either way, it wasn't going to be pretty. It made him so scared that he barely had the energy to read the last mail she had sent him. With a trembling finger, he clicked the final message.

_I know you're avoiding me! Stop it … please, I just want to talk :-(_

Great, he'd been ignoring her all this time while all she wanted to do was talk to him. Kaitou felt guilty as hell, so guilty in fact, that he clicked on the reply button. It was time he came face to face with his fears and talked to Akira. His fingers were resting on the keyboard, waiting for him to think of something to say. What would he say? What was there to say? _'Oh hey, sorry I kissed you, please forget about it!_' wouldn't quite do it. Kaitou was way too embarrassed to even talk about anything remotely close to 'kiss', so he figured he'd approach the simple reply.

_Sorry, I fell asleep right away when I got home._

Kaitou reread it; it seemed kind of cold, like he was intentionally avoiding the subject he knew she wanted to talk about – but what else could he say without embarrassing the hell out of himself? The boy groaned out loud and pressed send.

* * *

Akira hadn't noticed it at first; she was merely twirling the little tennis racket around her finger. Kaitou had given it right before he … Akira turned red and laid down on her pillow. It was then that she noticed the button on the tennis racket. Funny, she hadn't noticed it all this time she'd been toying around with it. Curiosity got the better of her and she pressed it. When the voice of Kaitou suddenly boomed through the racket, Akira jumped and accidentally let it go. She grabbed the racket again and brought it up to her face to examine it; so it also recorded your voice. Akira pressed the button again, as she didn't hear it clearly before. Once more, the voice of Kaitou emerged from the speaker.

"_I like you, Akira."_

Her eyes widened at the message. Did she hear that correctly? She pressed it again just to make sure.

"_I like you, Akira."_

Akira brought a hand up to her face, as if to hide herself. "Kaitou, why must you torture me so," she mumbled and pressed the button to hear the message once more. Akira felt like she was laying down on a bunch of fluffy clouds, as everything felt wonderful to her now. She also couldn't seem to stop pressing the button to hear Kaitou say that he liked her. Yesterday still felt like a dream, and that message was the only part of it that made everything seem real. Akira held the racket close to her heart as she played the message again, finding it hard to stop listening to it.

She really wanted to see him again. Yesterday was merely a teaser for her, and left her hanging for more. She definitely wanted more, as crazy as that sounded. Especially once he … Akira found it hard to even think about it; clamming up and breaking out into sweat. It was simply too unreal to believe it happened, but it really did. It _did_ happen, Kaitou did in fact … kiss her. Right before he boarded the train, he kissed her lips. It wasn't an accident, it certainly wasn't after he forcefully pulled her close to him and bent his head down to reach her lips. No, he definitely did it on purpose, and Akira had been stuck with thoughts such as 'why' ever since.

Why did he kiss her? Akira pressed the button again.

"_I like you, Akira."_

Because he liked her, that's why. Because he wanted to kiss her. He wanted to do all those things yesterday that Akira had liked. He didn't mind she was holding him during their bike trip, and he certainly didn't mind the second time. There was also the hand holding part, which was the most obvious one, as he never pulled his hand back when she intertwined their fingers together. No, Kaitou wouldn't keep on holding her hand if he didn't like it. It was obvious, wasn't it – Kaitou had liked it all. Or at least, didn't seem to mind. Well, Akira was fairly sure that he did like all those things, because he had kissed her at the end.

Kaitou kissed her.

Akira touched her lips, remembering the scene from yesterday. It was fast, really fast, so fast she could barely remember what his lips felt on top of hers. Though, she did remember her own mind shutting down for a few seconds when he did, and the amount of confusing feelings surging through her body afterwards as she watched him disappear into the distance.

Akira liked it, and she wanted to do it again, but this time properly. Not having to do it right at the end, when there wasn't much time left. No, she wanted to do it again when she was alone with him. Somewhere private, where she could take her leisure time staring into his eyes, then leaning forward to catch his lips with her. Yes, she wanted to take all the time in the world to kiss Kaitou – for the second time that it. If there was ever going to be a second time. Was there going to be a second time? Her finger pressed the button.

"_I like you, Akira."_

Why wouldn't there be? Kaitou couldn't very well leave her with a final kiss, then completely ignore her and never see her again. No, he had set the wheels in motion now; she couldn't possibly leave him alone now. Not when she wanted it as bad as he did. If only he would actually respond to her mails so that she could talk this through with him.

Kaitou hadn't said a word to her after he had kissed her and left on the train. Not even a small message stating that he was safe and home. He was ignoring her, she knew he was. Maybe he really was under the impression that the kiss was the final thing he'd do to her, then walk out of her life completely because he was afraid she might hurt him or something. How could she? This was Kaitou, her best friend, she couldn't do those things to him. Especially since she _wanted_ him to do all those things to her, and had certainly enjoyed their time together (especially the physical parts). She wasn't mad at him for kissing her, in fact, she was kind of proud he did. Who knew Kaitou had the guts to pull off a stunt like that? Well, he was kind of gutsy in-game, but he was a complete wimp offline. Then again, the kiss proved otherwise.

Kaitou leaped at the chance and kissed her. That took guts. Now it was time he faced her after the kiss, because Akira seriously needed to talk to him. She really wanted to talk to him, to tell him that it's alright he kissed her. She obviously liked it, wasn't the hand holding proof enough for him? All that touchy stuff wasn't for nothing. If it were any other person, she wouldn't dare touch them like she had casually touched Kaitou. Wasn't it clear to him that she held him for a reason during the bike trip? That she had reached out to hold his hand during the fireworks? To show him that yes, Akira liked him as well? Maybe he was dense? Well, Kaitou could be really dense, but who can deny that hand holding was seen as something romantic between couples? Surely he understood that significant action, right?

"_I like you, Akira."_

Akira snuggled the little tennis racket. "I like you too, Kaitou," she mumbled back to it.

It took her a while to admit it, to say it out loud; but Akira definitely liked Kaitou. Probably a lot more than that word could ever portray her real feelings. She had for a long time, but never really admitted or acted upon it. Not since yesterday, when all those emotions were driving her crazy and overrode her sane mind, making her do stuff she wouldn't have done before. Such as holding his hand.

Then he kissed her.

Akira groaned out loud in frustration; she really needed to talk to Kaitou! She couldn't wait around for him to finally respond to her. Akira took her phone and was about to dial his number, when she figured she should check her mail first before calling him. Maybe he had finally sent her something while she was day dreaming about him.

The girl sat behind her computer, typed in her password and logged onto her mail. To her surprise, Kaitou had finally replied. That nervous feeling was starting to build up in her stomach again. She slowly clicked on it, wondering what he had said.

_Sorry, I fell asleep right away when I got home._

That's it? That's all he wrote? Akira frowned at the screen, which then turned into a glare. That pissed her off! No, she must be calm, acting hysterical wasn't going to achieve anything. Kaitou was probably being his weird self again and clamming up when he should be discussing his feelings with her. So to make sure that the subject would be about them, Akira started to type.

_I'm glad that you're safe, I was getting kind of worried because you didn't send me a message._

_I also wanted to thank you for the birthday present. It's really cute, I'm glad you remembered I like tennis. It was only an hour ago that I figured out it had a recorded message on it._

Akira stared at the screen. What should she say after that? So she heard his message, what would she say to him? 'I like you too' seemed way too cheesy, and in a way, it seemed like was losing to Kaitou by saying it personally to him first. Alright, he managed to say it first, but it was pre-recorded! It didn't count! She was not going to admit it first! Akira childishly stuck out her tongue to no one in particular and sent her message as it was.

It took a while before she got her reply, she had been sitting around, browsing the internet as she waited for his reply. She looked at the clock, and realized it took him an hour to respond to her Akira quickly opened it up.

_Sorry?_

She frowned; sorry? What was he sorry about? Why was he suddenly lacking words from his vocabulary? Did he lose the ability to type coherent messages? A bit annoyed, Akira wrote her reply.

_Sorry about what?_

Then hit send.

Akira tapped her foot on the ground impatiently, awaiting his reply. She knew he was at the computer, so ignoring her right now was obvious and really rude. He wouldn't dare ignore her again. Her computer chimed; Kaitou had sent her mail.

_About … that._

He was being really vague, wasn't he? He was doing it on purpose too; Akira knew he was avoiding anything that had to do with what happened yesterday and what was recorded on the tennis racket. She really couldn't help keep her annoying tendencies intact and started to write her angry reply.

_Stop being so vague and avoiding the subject! Type like a normal person, you moron._

Alright, so she was getting pretty mad right now. It was his fault though! Being so annoyingly vague with his very short mails. He should know better than to aggravate her. Within a few minutes, Kaitou's mail came in.

_I'm sorry I kissed you._

Akira reread that line several times. Suddenly, she felt pretty hurt, as if someone decided to rip out her stomach and dance on it. He was sorry he kissed her? Well, that was pretty damn insulting. It was like he was referring to it as a mistake, like he wanted to take it back and pretend it never happened. How was that supposed to make her feel when she actually liked it?

"Well, _so-ry_ mister, but you can't suddenly say something like that and expect to get away with it," she said out loud. She positioned her fingers on the keyboard and started to type away.

_Really? I wasn't aware that you kissing me was a mistake. I'm glad to know that now, Kaitou. Thank you very much for saying you're sorry about it while I was sitting here, thinking maybe we can meet up again. But I can tell you don't want to, so goodbye Kaitou._

So maybe her mail was filled with lies to rile him up – but he deserved it! For being sorry about kissing her! She wasn't actually going to stop talking to him, she only wanted him to feel guilty for saying something like that, because she was happy he kissed her. Saying 'I'm sorry I kissed you.' was a big slap in the face. He had to get it through his thick skull that she liked it.

Another chime, and another mail came in.

_Wait, you're not angry about it?_

Akira rolled her eyes and wanted to hit her forehead because of Kaitou's stupidity.

_Geez Kaitou, yah think? The only thing I'm angry about is you avoiding me and saying that you're sorry for kissing me!_

_Well guess what, I'm __**not**__ sorry! :-(_

There, maybe he'd get it now. She still didn't want to admit it first though, that she liked him that is. She wanted to hear him say it again, even though he technically did say it. Though, that didn't really count. Really. She waited for her inbox to update so that she could see his mail pop in.

_I thought you'd be angry at me … and I kind of didn't want to face you after that. What about the message? You're not ... angry about that either?_

He was referring to the recorded message telling her he liked her, right? Akira shrugged, and figured she'd type something without admitting she liked him.

_No, I'm not angry about that at all. I liked it._

There, she said she liked 'it', but not_ him_ specifically. She was playing a really childish game with him, trying to get him to say it before her, but she was allowed to have some fun, right? Teasing him was a lot of fun, especially since she knew he'd be all flustered right now. Alright, maybe she was flustered as well, but by focusing on getting him to admit it first took away some of her nerves. Akira smiled as she waited for the next mail to come in. Maybe she should call him, so they wouldn't have to mail each other anymore. Then again, it would make everything more awkward, and she wasn't quite sure if she knew what to say on the spot. Her computer chimed again.

_I'm not quite sure if I follow you, you're not angry about the kiss, and you're also not angry about the message I gave you. Then what are you?_

Akira tapped her fingers on the keyboard, wondering what her response should be without admitting she liked him first.

_Happy :-)_

She was happy to hear those words and to have kissed him. Very happy indeed.

_Does that mean you like me?_

_And I don't mean as friends._

Darn, he was forcing her to say it first. Akira thought about how she could answer this mail without losing to him and being the first one to admit to liking the other. She cracked her mind, but found no way of answering the mail without admitting that she liked Kaitou. The girl sighed in defeat; he had won the round, she would finally admit that she liked him. Akira swallowed hard and slowly started to type her reply with her heart beating in her throat. Even though she knew he liked her back … it was still making her palms sweaty as she tried to type.

_Yes Kaitou, I like you very much. I'm pretty sure that was obvious since yesterday._

Akira hadn't noticed it till now, but her body was actually shaking a little bit. She was full of nerves and excitement. Even though she was merely discussing this with Kaitou, and she already knew that he liked her, she was still feeling plenty of weird emotions that made her happy. Oh yes, Kaitou liking her back made her very happy. Really happy indeed – it made her finally admit she liked him as well. More than friends, a lot more than friends. She probably had for a long time, and Akira did notice it, her feelings for Kaitou, they were buried deep within her, but her pride refused herself to admit to really liking him. Well, that was until yesterday.

_Well, you can be very confusing you know. You've said you were in love with me 3 times, and each time you said you were joking afterwards. It's nice to know for sure :-)_

Akira rose her eyebrows at this; had he been keeping count? She thought back to how many times she said something like this, and could only remember two times she said she loved him, then joked about it right afterwards. Once was in the mail about two weeks or so ago, then the other one was yesterday at the theme park. Where was the third one then? She shook her head and started to type her question that had been burning in her mind. What spurred Kaitou on to kiss her? What made him take that chance and do it?

_So I've been thinking about this since you left; why did you kiss me? I know we held hands before, but I never expected you to do that._

She wondered what went through Kaitou's mind when he kissed her. She'd really liked to know.

_I don't know … I just wanted to, I guess. Are you sure you're not mad about it?_

Akira smiled; of course she wasn't mad. She was super glad that her first kiss had been with Kaitou. However, she wasn't going to admit that so fast … not yet anyway. Though the kiss had been rather fast and Akira couldn't remember the feeling as much (except for the feelings that came _afterwards_), and very much wanted to repeat it and do it right. Yeah, she really wanted to do it again.

_Want to do it again?_

She wanted to see him again, badly. Ever since Kaitou had left her side, she had been missing him like crazy. Which was absurd, considering they were only together for a very short amount of time, and she was already missing his presence around her. Even though that presence did sometimes make her feel awkward, she very much liked having him around, it was a really nice feeling having him close.

_What exactly are you asking for?_

Akira rolled her eyes at Kaitou's denseness.

_I'm asking if you want to do it again, you idiot. It means I want to see you again._

Akira was beginning to really dread waiting for his reply again. Maybe calling him wasn't such a bad idea right now.

_Well, of course I want to see you again, I just don't have the money anymore :-(_

That's it, she was going to call him, she hated interacting with mail now, she wanted to hear his voice. Akira grabbed her phone and selected Kaitou's name from her list and dialed his number. The phone rang for quite a while, and Akira suspected that Kaitou was too chicken to pick up and face her in real-time. It scared her a bit too, to talk to him right now, after they basically admitted they liked each other. She was pleasantly surprised when he did pick up and answered the phone.

"Hi," he said softly, sending chills down her spine. Hearing his voice was so much better than reading his mails.

"Hey," she greeted, equally as soft as his voice. It was a bit awkward, especially since they were talking about kissing and hand holding and liking each other …

"Erm, d-did you read my last mail?" She loved it when he stuttered.

"Yes I did. Which is why I was going to say that you don't have to worry about the money."

"N-no, I can't accept money from you!" he replied hastily.

"What? No, I don't mean like that. I meant that I could come visit you instead, you know, so you won't have to pay to come see me."

"Oh," he said. Then after a while of silence, he said something again, his voice wavering. "Look at me … I can't even hold my phone correctly because I'm shaking so much …"

Akira was practically shaking too; there were too much emotions coursing through her body, and it was making her feel very faint and weak in the knees. Good thing she was already sitting down.

"I know, me too," she admitted in a tiny voice. "I don't even want to know what my face looks like right now." She really didn't; she'd been avoiding touching her cheeks or looking into anything shiny so she could avoid her reflection. She already knew she was blushing like no tomorrow, but she didn't want to see. Just knowing how much her emotions had an effect on her body was enough for her to know her cheeks were burning red.

"Hehe," chuckled Kaitou nervously.

"A-akira?"

"Yes?"

He paused for a while, probably to ready himself, and she could hear his unsteady breathing in the phone. "That message ... erm… how should I say this. It wasn't entirely true …"

Akira held in her breath; what did he mean by that? His message wasn't true? Did that mean he didn't really like her?

"I uhh …" he stopped to remove the phone from his head and she heard him curse in the background. Akira was still too stricken with fear that he'd been fooling her all this time to really care though.

He brought the phone back to his face. "I don't _just_ like you," he started, and Akira finally let go of the breath she'd been holding.

"You're a great person, Akira … always been by my side, always helped me out whenever I needed it. Sometimes even when I didn't need it. B-but that's not the point," he said in a big rush, sometimes stumbling over his words. "The point is … yesterday I realized I was really happy with you. I-I'm pretty sure you noticed though, I get nervous and shy quite fast around y-you," he admitted, and ironically enough, he said it 'shyly'.

Akira giggled as her body shivered at Kaitou's words. She leaned back in her chair, thinking she was going to lose consciousness or something from all the feelings that were emerging right now.

"Anyways, it just made me realize s-something which I have. .. felt … for a while. Uhm, yeah … I-eh … God why is this so hard to say!" he suddenly snapped at her. Akira was taken aback to hear Kaitou so frustrated; he had always been the calm one. "I'm sorry!" he hastily apologized. "I'm just a … wreck right now." She heard him take a deep breath to calm himself down before he started the next sentence. "Alright, here I go … Akira I … I …"

"I love you."

Akira felt her heart stop as he said those words. Thinking it had only been her imagination, she quickly responded with, "say that again," her voice barely a whisper.

"I … love you. There, I said it, twice."

There were tears, oh god there were tears streaming down her face and she had **no** idea _why_. Hearing those words really knocked all the sense out of her. So it wasn't just 'like', was it? Kaitou loved her, and Akira couldn't be happier at this revelation. Honestly, she was in love with him as well. Had been all this time. 'Like' just seemed easier to say than 'love', which is why she didn't mention it. It was already hard enough to admit to liking Kaitou, and her pride was preventing her from saying anything about 'love' to Kaitou, but hearing him break down in front of her to finally confess that he loved her … it melted her heart and her pride was thrown out the window. So she said the one thing that was on her mind as well.

"You've always helped me as well," she softly whispered back to him. "Always so honest, always helping people … but I always felt happier when you helped only _me_, and talked only to _me_. Yesterday just confirmed my already growing feelings for you, Kaitou. I never thought I'd say this, but …. here goes."

"I love you too …" she said with a big smile and tears in her eyes. "That one isn't a joke," she added with a small laugh. Kaitou laughed with her. Albeit both laughs were filled with anxiety and nerves.

Akira wiped away her tears and tried to calm down her beating heart. "You're not joking either, are you?"

"N-no, of course not!" Kaitou said a bit hurt. "I wouldn't embarrass myself so much if I was joking …" he mumbled more to himself. "Hah, this is so strange … I think I need to sit down."

Akira chuckled a bit. "What were you doing standing up then?"

"Well ... your phone call kind of scared me and made me jump out of my seat."

"Literally?" she asked while laughing at him.

"Yeah … haha … I know, I'm pretty pathetic."

"That's alright though, I still like you."

Akira couldn't wipe the smile off of her face as she held the phone closer to her ear, kind of wanting to cuddle it for bringing her good news. There was a short silence, with neither of them having anything to say (probably due to nerves and general shyness).

"So …" he began, pulling Akira out of her thoughts. "Does this mean we're together?"

"If by together you mean boyfriend and girlfriend, then yes, we are together. At least, I better hope we'd be!"

Kaitou loved her, and she loved him back – it was really a dream. Who knew yesterday's meeting would turn into this? Into a big confession? Who knew he loved her back? Kite, the Twilight hero, was in love with BlackRose, and they were now boyfriend and girlfriend – or whatever seemed more deeper than that. Her feelings were returned, and she was really happy about that, that he felt the same. However, she really had to see him again, especially after all this. That second meeting was definitely coming up.

"This feels so weird," Kaitou admitted.

"It feels weird to me too, I've never even had a boyfriend before you." Akira bit her lip, not really wanting to reveal she was so inexperienced.

"Is that right?" he asked a bit arrogantly. Then he chuckled at her. "I've never even had someone I liked before you … so I guess we're about the same, huh?"

Good, she didn't want Kaitou to like anyone but her, Akira was very possessive. Then she started to think about what made Kaitou think he was in love with her. The question was itching to come out of her mouth, and Akira simply obliged.

"When … when did you realize it? That you love me and all that stuff."

Kaitou was silent for a few seconds. "Yesterday?" he said unsure.

"Didn't take you very long to act on it then," said Akira with a snigger. "What exactly made you realize it though?"

"That guy, at the theme park. I was pretty angered that he kept trying to give you his gift … and then you joked about liking me."

Akira winced at the memory. "Yeah, sorry about that …"

"Don't be, because I was actually happy when you said you liked me … it kind of surprised me, but then I started thinking … one thing led to another …"

"So, it was a good thing I joked around about liking you?"

Kaitou laughed a bit. "I guess so. Then, what about you?"

Akira looked at the ceiling as she pondered his question. It was hard to tell when, because Akira's pride prevented her from admitting she loved Kaitou. She knew she had hidden feelings for him for a long time, she just never acted upon them or gave it much thought. Then she saw his picture, and everything started to snowball from there on. However, the one thing that really made her think about it, was the picture on his cellphone. Akira was Kaitou's wallpaper on his cellphone, and it really forced her to think about his feelings, and her feelings for him.

"Hhmm, I guess I'd have to say when I realized that my picture was your wallpaper."

Kaitou choked back a cough. "You saw that!"

Akira laughed at his reaction when his secret came out. "Yup, for a moment I thought you were some creepy stalker though."

"I can't believe you didn't even say anything about it … and I'm not a creepy stalker!"

"Suuure, why else was my picture on your phone, huh?"

"That's because I liked looking at you, okay?"

Akira's cheeks heated up even more and she smiled. That was a pretty nice answer.

"Anyways, once I saw that picture I couldn't stop thinking about why you had done it … so I figured, maybe it's because you liked me … and I liked that. I liked thinking that you liked me, however vain that might sound like. Which is why, well ... you know … I grabbed your hand during the fireworks."

"That's why you held my hand? Well, then I'm not sorry for having you as my wallpaper then," he said smugly.

"I actually kind of liked it," she said with a shy smile.

"What, the hand holding?"

"Oh, I meant the picture. But the hand holding, yeah it was nice. I want to do it again."

"Me too."

"And I want to kiss you as well," she admitted softly, her cheeks reddening.

"I'm so glad you're not mad about that … haha."

"I'm just mad you did it right before you left! Didn't even give me time to think!"

"I'm sorry! It was really just in the spur of the moment kind of thing! I wasn't planning on it …"

"Well, we'd have to redo it. When you're not on the brink of leaving."

"You mean a second meeting?"

"Of course! This time I'll come see you, and we won't bring any of our friends together this time … this time, it'll just be you … and me."

"You sure you have the money for it?"

"Yeah, I have enough for a bunch of trips actually."

"I guess we're going back to planning things again."

"First we need to figure out when … I can come next weekend, if you'd like."

"Sounds fine to me, I'm free whenever you are."

"And uhm … can I sleep over?" she asked hesitantly.

"Erm, why?"

"Well … one day is so short, don't you think? And because we live so far from each other, traveling will get pretty expensive … so staying over so we can spend two days together wouldn't be a bad thing, right?"

"I guess so … I'll have to ask my parents though."

"I'm pretty sure they'll be glad a girl is staying over – didn't you say that they thought you were gay?" She tried her best to hold in her giggle that was trying to escape.

"Don't say that! Either way, I think I pretty much disproved that point now, don't you think?"

"And why's that?" she cooed innocently.

"B-because!"

"Come on, don't be shy, say it."

"Because I'm in love with you."

No matter how many times she'd hear him say that, it still brought all these emotions free that did several things to her body at once. Akira was overjoyed to hear him say it, she could never get tired of hearing that. Never.

"I said it, now it's your turn."

Akira gulped, finding it hard to say it as well. "Fine … I'm in love with you too."

"I can't believe BlackRose is my girlfriend."

Akira smiled for the umpteenth time. "I'm pretty satisfied that Kite is my boyfriend, he's pretty chill, you know."

Kaitou merely chuckled at her humor. "So about that second meeting …"


End file.
